


Parent Life

by grandmelon



Series: A Life Worth Living [12]
Category: Free!
Genre: Adoption, Domestic, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Growing Up, Love, M/M, Minor Hazuki Nagisa/Ryuugazaki Rei, Minor Nanase Haruka/Tachibana Makoto, Other, everyone only shows up in like one chapter, minor hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-13 08:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 28,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4515756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grandmelon/pseuds/grandmelon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of chronological glimpses into Sousuke and Rin's lives as parents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hannah (Age 7)

**Author's Note:**

> This was so long!!! I didn't expect it to turn out like this, but I had so much fun writing it... honestly there's so much I wanted to write I'm not sure how much people will actually want to read it. The over all thing I wanted to cover was just all the little fun family moments, though I do have some not so fun family moments. I really just love the idea of Rin and Sousuke becoming parents and I think they'd be surprisingly good at it. 
> 
> Please forgive inconsistencies in any mentions pertaining to the adoption process... I tried my best to research as much as I could (without having to actually go through it myself) but it's also very hard since it's difference based on places and people. 
> 
> Please tell me if there are any glaring errors I might have left that I should fix, it is a really long piece to edit so I'm sure I'm going to miss a lot whether I want to or not... I'm going to take it chapter by chapter and hope I catch most of it! 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys!

He had never been so nervous in his entire life, Rin was sure of it. More than going to Australia for the first time, or the second time. More than initiating a romantic relationship with his best friend. More than both Olympics he had been in, he was nervous now.

 

Sousuke had willingly brought up the idea of having children a few times in the past few years, saying that he wouldn't mind being a father. Rin wasn't so convinced, but after many long repeated conversations about whether or not he was just doing it to make Rin happy, he accepted it. Rin brought up that he had been dying to have a kid and felt ready for it more frequently after he hit twenty-eight, and here they were. Two thirty year olds meeting the third child they were allowed to meet.

 

The process was already long and difficult, especially since this wasn’t even their first try in meeting a child. It was bitter, not being chosen to be a child’s parents even after you formed a bond. It’s what had Rin holding back a bit in meeting another. This time they were meeting a girl, Hannah, who was seven years old.

 

She was already much older than the two kids they had met before, but he wasn’t going to let that stand in his way. Relationships can’t be measured by time, and hopefully the three of them would like each other. Rin was praying she’d be the one. Praying because he could tell in the crease of his brow and the amount of headaches occurring that Sousuke was reaching his limit with this adoption process.

 

He was nervous. He wanted it to work, but the worker dealing with them had explained Hannah’s situation and it didn’t look to well. Unlike the other two she had been in foster care for the past two years. Her only living relatives had refused to take care of her after learning of her new disability, and she’d been bouncing from foster house to foster house since.

 

In all honesty he was more worried about the mental traumas she had developed from the ordeal more than her physical incapability. Would she even be able to accept them as her parents if they were to follow through? Would things work out well or just leave her with another painful memory?

 

“You’re thinking too much again,” Sousuke sighed. “You’ll scare her if you meet her with that look.”

 

“I’m,” Rin stopped and he slouched against the chair. “I’m just worried.”

 

“Well stop, it ruins your pretty face.” Sousuke grinned when Rin snorted in response, a bit of tension releasing from his forehead. Leave it to Sousuke to know just what stupid thing he should say to help him relax.

 

Rin grabbed Sousuke’s hand and gave it a squeeze when the door opened.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“She doesn’t like us,” Rin sulked, staring out the train window into the dark. Sousuke rolled his eyes and elbowed him in the side, a grunt coming out in response.

 

“She’s just met us,” he reminded him, “and there was a lot going on. We’ll have a better chance getting her to like us when we can talk to her more without the social worker directing everything.”

 

“You’re oddly optimistic this evening,” Rin sighed, leaning into his shoulder. Sousuke’s shoulder twitched, a sign that he wanted to shrug, but didn’t want to shake Rin off. Instead he hummed and started drumming a beat against his legs.

 

“You’re oddly pessimistic this evening,” he countered after a second. Rin huffed, trying to stop the chuckle that was coming out of his mouth, or the snide comment waiting on his tongue. Sousuke wasn’t always good with comebacks, especially when he was embarrassed. Sometimes he could come up with a witty quip in a few seconds flat and other times he’d need a three week notice.

 

Either way he knew he was trying to calm him, so he’d try and allow himself to be calmed.

 

*                            *                            *

 

Rin watched the two of them sitting in silence at the table, drawing with crayons on colored paper. It was surreal watching it, and his heart quivered at the thought that this wouldn’t work. He heard his name called one more time and looked back at Ms. Williams, focusing on all the information she was dumping on him. Sousuke had resigned to sitting with Hannah, since he wouldn’t be able to keep up anyways.

 

Laurel, Hannah’s designated social worker, had given tips and suggestions before they met her again today, but this time she didn’t make a move to stay with Hannah. Instead she waited with Rin and Ms. Williams and talked about a thousand and one things, and even Rin had a hard time keeping up. They didn’t even pause to breathe before they heard giggling coming from the table.

 

All three pairs of eyes snapped to Hannah, who was laughing at something, Sousuke was just sitting there smiling at her. Hannah drew something on the paper and then it was Sousuke who was laughing. Laurel started walking over and Rin followed close behind. Both of them were glancing at each other when Hannah flipped over her paper and folder her arms over it, Sousuke mimicking her with his own.

 

“What are you two laughing about?” Laurel smiled, amused by Hannah’s antics. Hannah started giggling more and glanced at Sousuke who just shrugged.

 

“Nothing.”

 

“Nothing!” She chimed and Rin felt his heart stop.

 

“Oh really?”

 

“Really! It’s nothing, go away!” She shooed them, laughing more at the face Laurel made. Laurel crossed her arms and in a surprisingly intimidating way with a very stern look on her face.

 

“Hannah, show me what you’re hiding.”

 

Hannah’s smile dropped and she looked at Sousuke for help. Rin saw Sousuke flip over his paper and push it to where they could see. Rin nearly spit when he saw a very awful rendition of him done in crayon, with an awful smile of big pointy teeth. Hannah then flipped hers over and on it was a rather detailed depiction of Laurel, with her high ponytail and a huge frown on her face, and her arms crossed.

 

Laurel’s mouth dropped and Hannah and Sousuke started giggling more but stopped to apologize. Sousuke apologized for drawing him and Hannah apologized to Laurel. Rin felt a sudden fear that maybe they wouldn’t let them have her if they thought Sousuke would be a bad influence. He turned back to look at Ms. Williams to see her reaction and relaxed when he saw that she was covering a grin of her own.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“They feel like mine,” Hannah explained holding out her arm for him to touch. Sousuke hummed when he saw it but didn’t reach out.

 

“They look the same right?”

 

Hannah nodded and put her arm down, focusing back on Sousuke’s scar.

 

“Are you showing Mr. Matsuoka your surgery scars Hannah?” Laurel asked and Sousuke and Hannah turned to her. Hannah shrugged and Sousuke focused his attention back to Hannah who had flipped over his arm and was looking at another puffy scar running across his forearm.

 

“Is this also from the doctor?”

 

“No, that time I burned myself on a stove,” Sousuke explained with a small chuckle. Hannah hummed again before pushing his shirt’s sleeve back up to look at the scar on his shoulder again.

 

“Were you in a car accident?”

 

“No, I made a mistake and tore a muscle when I was swimming.” Hannah dropped the shirt and frowned.

 

“I can’t swim. Is it fun?” She asked as she went back to drawing on her piece of paper.

 

“It’s fun. We could teach you if you want.” Sousuke kicked Rin under the table and he nearly yelped, glaring at the other. “Rin’s an Olympic swimmer so he’s better at it than I am.”

 

Rin’s hold body froze up when she looked up at him. Her eyes were full of genuine surprise and Rin’s cheeks went hot pink, a nervous frown on his face. Sousuke kicked him again and Rin kicked back, suddenly smiling at Hannah. Laurel seemed a bit distracted by the scene.

 

“He’s won a gold medal before too.”

 

“Can I see it?” Hannah asked, eyes brighter than before.

 

“I’ll show you it next time,” Rin finally answered.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“Look! Look! I can write in Japanese!”

 

Hannah shoved a paper forcefully into Laurel’s hands and she laughed at how excited she was. “That says water,” she said pointing at the one character.

 

“That’s wonderful Hannah,” Laurel giggled and Hannah ran back over to Sousuke to ask how to write more. “As I was saying, I’m really surprised at how much Hannah is opening up.”

 

Ms. Williams crossed her arms with a smile and Rin grinned back. Hannah ran back with Sousuke’s hand in hers, pulling him along with her. She handed a paper to Rin and he laughed when he saw in her shaky writing “Rin Matsuoka and Sousuke Matsuoka.”

 

“That looks amazing Hannah, you’re a natural,” Rin said as he handed her back the paper.

 

“When you adopt me can I have a different name?” Hannah asked turning to look up at Sousuke and then back at Rin. The whole group of adults stopped, shocked by the exclamation and Sousuke was the first to react, squatting down to be more eye level with her.

 

“What kind of name do you want?” he asked, folding his arms over his knees. She pointed at Rin’s first name.

 

“I want a pretty name like that. I want to write my name like that too.” Sousuke hummed, ignoring the looks the adults above them were exchanging.

 

“Well how about Hana? It’s spelt similar to your name in English, but it’s a Japanese name like ours. It’s written as flower petal, want to see?” Hannah nodded furiously and Sousuke stood up and used Rin’s back to write the name on the paper with the crayon she had had before handing it to her. Rin glanced at the Ms. Williams and Laurel, he wasn’t sure if you were even allowed to change a kid’s name.

 

“It’s perfect! I want my name to be Hana!” she exclaimed. She and Sousuke looked at the others. “Can my name be Hana?”

 

“If that’s what you want,” Laurel offered, at a loss.

 

Hannah made to go back to the table again, pulling at Sousuke’s shirt, urging him along before she stopped and turned back to them.

 

“When we live together will I learn Japanese?”

 

“If you want to,” Rin answered, a smile exploding on his face. Hannah seemed satisfied with the answer and Rin grinned more when Hannah grabbed Sousuke’s hand, dragging him back to the table. He followed, shooting a smile of his own back at Rin before focusing back to Hannah’s endless questions. They sat there and he taught her how to write her new name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s the first chapter! I will be posting the first three today, and hopefully go at a steady one chapter per day. I’ll try my best to keep up, but the fic is already completed so I will definitely finish posting it by the end of the month!
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	2. Hana Matsuoka (Age 7)

“How was your first day at school?” Rin asked, sitting down on the couch with Sousuke and Hana. They both were sitting with their legs spread, slouched into the couch and looking grumpy. Rin nearly spit out his cola when he saw Hana imitating him the first time.

 

“Awful,” they both announced.

 

“You didn’t even go to school, what do you have to complain about?” Rin laughed. Sousuke groaned and Hana sighed dramatically.

 

“My teacher is so boring,” she said. “And he kept talking and talking to Sousuke.”

 

“You should have taken the day off and come instead,” Sousuke complained.

 

“It couldn’t have been that bad,” Rin argued knocking knees with Sousuke. “Did you make any new friends?”

 

“Yeah, but everyone’s younger than me. They’re all six year olds.”

 

“You’re only seven,” Sousuke grumbled. Hana looked at him like he said something outrageous and slapped his side.

 

“But I’ll be eight in three months!”

 

“Speaking of, what do you want for your birthday?”

 

Hana whipped around so fast Rin flinched and started rubbing his neck. She started going off on a long list of things she wanted. Some of them being a dog, weights so she can train with them, a new bed, a poster of her favorite female singer, and a new leg that had a cherry blossom design on it. Sousuke glanced at Rin when she mentioned that one and Rin sighed, knowing that they’d be going on some epic journey for it.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“That’s so cool!” Hana cheered as she saw Rin swimming butterfly, using his arms to propel him out of the pool. Sousuke grinned, holding onto her hands. She was in a swimming vest and floaties to make her feel safer, but she still didn’t want anyone to let go of her. “I want to swim like that!”

 

“Well when you get better you can,” Sousuke assured her.

 

“I’m going to swim like that!” She declared loudly.

 

Sousuke laughed and Hana asked Sousuke to swim them over to Rin, who had just finished a lap and was sitting on the side of the pool. Sousuke swung her around so she could hold around his neck and grinned at how used to it she was getting. Only a half hour ago she didn’t even want to step foot in the water.

 

“Hold on tight,” he warned as he gently swam over to Rin.

 

“Having fun?” Rin grinned at them as they reached him. Hannah kept her arms tight around Sousuke even when they stopped.

 

“You were so fast! And you were coming up so far out of the water!” Hana exclaimed, throwing one hand up to explain herself. Sousuke laughed and gently guided her in between them, one arm wrapped around her, hers still clinging to his neck. “I want to swim like that!”

 

“Well,” Rin laughed, “I can teach you if you want.”

 

“He taught me,” Sousuke added and Hana turned to him mouth gaping.

 

“You can swim like that?” Her eyes as wide as saucers. “I want to see!”

 

“Yeah Sousuke, show us!” Rin agreed, taking Hana’s one outstretched hand and dragging her over to the side of the pool. She put her arms up to be hoisted up to sit on the side with him. When she was settled they both looked at him with twin expectant grins on their faces.

 

Sousuke sighed before turning around and getting ready to go.

 

“No! Start up on the starting block like Rin,” Hana instructed. Rin smirked at him and Sousuke let out another puff of air, those two were going to make quite the duo. He lifted himself up out of the pool and walked over to the starting block.

 

“Get ready,” Rin started, glancing at Hana. She put her arm up and waved it down.

 

“Go!”

*                            *                            *

 

“And then Anna pushed him off the swing and he started crying,” she finished, arms curling tiny weights. Rin curled his own as he listened to the story, though he couldn’t really respond with how much he had already been working. All that left him was puffs of hot air. Sousuke hummed from the other side, doing sit ups on the bench.

 

“She doesn’t sound very nice,” Rin huffed, putting down the weights and getting ready to start his squats.

 

“Yeah, she’s a real jerk,” Hana agreed as she put down her own weights and crossed her arms. “She was always making jokes about my leg, but she stopped after I punched her. Now she won’t even look at me.”

 

Rin nearly fell down onto his ass, catching himself against the wall. He looked at Hana who looked more concerned about him almost falling. Sousuke had stopped his sit-ups.

 

“You punched her!?” Rin stood up straight, eyes finally catching the way Sousuke wouldn’t look at him. After a pause Sousuke continued his workout. “Did you know about this!?”

 

Hana scooted away from Rin, a guilty expression on her face, knowing that she just got the other in trouble. She was the one who told him to keep quiet about it anyways. Sousuke finished after another sit-up and fell back onto the bench, looking back over to them upside down, out of breath.

 

“The principal called, and I had to pick her up from school,” he admitted. “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, I already talked to Hana about how she shouldn’t do that, and she regrets it.”

 

“I do!” She urged, coming to Sousuke’s aide. “And we didn’t really keep it from you! We were going to tell you, but you were busy so we forgot.”

 

“You forgot,” Rin deadpanned, watching the way the two of them averted their eyes in unison. “When did this even happen?”

 

“Last week,” Sousuke mumbled, sitting up on the bench. Hana started rubbing the back of her neck, eyes on the ground.

 

“Sorry,” she whispered.

 

“I can’t believe this,” Rin groaned into his hands. “That’s it. You’re both grounded, this is ridiculous. No TV, no swimming, nothing.”

 

“No swimming?” Hana cried.

 

“No,” Rin declared.

 

“Are you mad?” she whispered. She was wringing her tiny hands together, biting her lip. Rin sighed and pushed the loose hairs away from his face.

 

“I am, but not because you fought that girl,” Rin said, crossing his arms. “I can’t believe you guys kept that from me.”

 

They both kept quiet, shame overcoming them. Sousuke looked particularly guilty, and Rin let out another exhausted breath. He didn’t want to hurt them more, but he couldn’t let them start a habit as bad as keeping things to themselves. He shifted his wait onto his dominant leg and rubbed the back of his neck, another sigh escaping his lips.

 

“Look, if you guys ever hide something from me again I’m leaving.”

 

Sousuke immediately sprung up, pure fear etched into his eyes and Rin felt deep seeded guilt in his stomach for making that show. Hana looked shocked to the point of crying and Rin motioned for them to come over for a hug. Hana was the first, running forward into him, arms twisting around his sweaty side, crying that she was sorry.

 

Sousuke was hesitant at first, fear still controlling him, before he too walked over for a hug, wrapping his arms around Rin’s shoulders. Rin wrapped an arm around each of them and squeezed. He closed his eyes and listened to them, his heart aching listening to their pain. Even though his words were to teach a lesson, they were a double edged sword.

 

“I’m a part of this family too,” Rin started, holding onto them tight. “Don’t shut me out. I’m here to help you, because I love you. Don’t hide things from me, even if you’re worried I’ll be mad,” Rin emphasized, Hana squeezing him tighter.

 

“I’m sorry,” Sousuke whispered, and Rin felt tears pricking at his eyes hearing the break in his voice. The soft shakiness of his breath. He pulled back from them and smiled, turning his attention to Sousuke. He placed a hand against his cheek. Hana had a hand gripping both of their shirts, also upset seeing him like that.

 

“I know you are, and I know this is new and hard,” Rin started, “but we’re both in this together. We’re both new parents together. Even if it’s just a small thing, or you think it’s a small thing, don’t keep it from me. I know it’s a hard habit to break, but as soon as you catch yourself doing it, just tell me. I don’t care if it’s awhile after, just tell me.”

 

Sousuke closed his eyes and nodded, and Rin leaned up and pressed a kiss to his frown, feeling it soften under his lips. When he leaned back Sousuke was staring at him, a thankfulness in his eyes and Rin let out a wobbly grin of his own. They both knew his words were no more than an empty threat, but it was a shock enough to remind him of what he promised. What they promised.

 

“And you,” Rin said, turning to Hana, bending down to her. Hana rubbed her tears away harshly. “Don’t hide things from me, okay? Don’t hide things from either of us. And don’t try to rope this dummy into anything. I know he’s a big pushover, but you have to use this knowledge for good, okay?”

 

Rin teased, hitting his head against Sousuke’s thigh. Sousuke rolled his eyes and Hana nodded, a small laugh escaping her, rubbing away her tears again. Rin held out his pinky and she followed suit, promising to be better.

 

“We’re a family, so that means we’re all in this together, right?” he asked, looking at the two of them. Sousuke squatted down to their level and held out his hand, and Hana grabbed it, nodding her head. Rin grabbed her other hand and smiled.

 

“No more secrets. We’ll all figure things out together.”


	3. Family Vacation (Age 8)

The shrill noise of Rin’s alarm went off and he fumbled for his phone, turning off the blasted thing before trying to get up. The arm around his waist came alive in an iron grip and he huffed as he tried to get it to release him. He groaned as he was pulled into a hug, encaged by the giant lump next to him.

 

“Sousuke, let me get up,” Rin moaned, poking his side. Sousuke wiggled but said nothing. “I’m serious come on.”

 

“Stop trying to do things, you’re supposed to be relaxing,” Sousuke reminded him, yawning into his pillow.

 

Rin yawned in response, before giving in and curling into his side. It was his first time off in a long while; he could afford to miss a morning run. Sousuke seemed to agree as he tucked Rin into his chest, squeezing him tight. Rin grinned into his shoulder and tried his best to wrap his own arm around Sousuke’s waist after wiggling it out from between them.

 

“Wake up!” A voice rang from the corridor. Seconds later the door swung open and a tiny mass was jumping up onto the bed. Rin yelped as they were crushed by Hana’s weight. “Wake up, wake up!”

 

“Hana, it’s six in the morning,” Sousuke groaned.

 

“But we have to get ready or else we won’t get to spend the whole day at the beach,” she whined. “Come on lazy! Get up!”

 

“See?” Rin laughed and Sousuke sighed, releasing Rin just long enough to swing his arm around Hana and pull her down between them. She yelped and squirmed, trying to break free before she broke down into giggles.

 

“Dad, let go! We have to get ready!” she laughed. Rin started giggling too at Sousuke’s pathetic moan into his pillow.

 

“It’s a vacation, that means relaxing,” he informed them. “Sleep now, I’ll make breakfast later.”

 

“But the beach,” she whined.

 

“Yeah Sousuke, you’re wasting time,” Rin teased.

 

Sousuke sighed and released the two of them completely, flipping onto his other side and Rin snickered at his stubbornness. He grabbed Hana by the side and scooped her out of the bed, carrying her out of the room and closing the door behind them. They could afford to give Sousuke another minute, he’d be up and making the breakfast before the half hour was up anyways. He’d always give in in the end.

 

“Come on Hana, let’s pack the car without him so he can rest.”

 

“He’s such a bum,” she grumbled before running off to her room to get her swim gear. Rin chuckled under his breath as he went to the hallway closet to get their beach towels. Hana was running all over the place, putting everything she needed to bring in the living room.

 

“Ah!” She said all of a sudden looking at the pile in shock. Rin looked at her, confused, packing things neatly in their beach bags.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“I forgot my water leg!” she said and she made a dash back upstairs, crawling up it with her hands like a dog. “Don’t put the bags in the car yet!”

 

“I won’t!” he called back, forgoing trying to keep it down since she was already yelling from the top of the stairs. Sousuke would be awake soon, if he wasn’t already. He just shook his head and took out all of the things Hana had piled up in her bag, repacking so that it would all fit in and the zipper wouldn’t bust.

 

By the time they had everything done and in the car, besides the cooler that is, Sousuke was up and making breakfast. Rin and Hana sat at the kitchen table and whispered about how grumpy Sousuke was that morning, Sousuke ignoring them. Hana started telling Rin about all of her plans for the week, and how excited she was to spend so much time with the both of them.

 

He was excited to spend time with them too.

 

*                            *                            *

 

When Rin finished his shower the first thing he noticed was that it was unusually quiet. After he got dressed he headed first for Hana’s room, opening it up and seeing that the light was off and she wasn’t in her bed. He traveled down the rest of the hall and went down stairs to see if they were there. As soon as he turned into the living room he spotted two sleeping bodies on the couch, already in their pajamas.

 

Sousuke was sitting, slouched into the couch with his arms crossed and his feet propped up on the coffee table. His head had nodded off to the side, barely sitting on top of the couch cushion. Hana was at his side, arms also folded, head pressed against Sousuke’s arm. Rin almost laughed when he saw that the coffee table was put at an angel so that she too could put up her feet.

 

He slipped back out of the living room and went for his phone, charging in his room. When he came back he made sure to flip it onto silent before he took a few pictures of the scene. He stopped his giggles, but couldn’t hide his smile as sent out a mass-email to his sister and friends of the picture.

 

Once he finished he put his phone in his pocket and walked over to them, turning off the TV on his way, playing some documentary, a sure fire way to put them both to sleep. He picked up Hana’s feet and set them on the down off the coffee table. He gently removed her prosthetic and put it to the side before wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up off the sofa.

 

She stirred for a second, but only long enough to wrap her arms around Rin’s neck. He pressed a kiss to her hair and carried her back to her room. They were exhausted. He could let one night of not brushing teeth go.

 

He turned around and bumped the door open, flipping the light switch on with his elbow. She wasn’t heavy, but she was getting big. A few people had said that she was too old to be picked up, but he could remember his mom carrying him to bed for many long years, and he loved every one.

 

Hana groaned as she was put down, arms tightening around his neck and he chuckled under his breath as he untangled her arms. He pulled up her blanket and kissed her forehead before leaving, flicking off the light and making sure the door was open. After he was done he went back for the other one, though he wouldn’t be able to carry that big baby to bed.

 

“Sousuke,” Rin cooed, “get up. At least sleep in our bed.”

 

Sousuke’s face scrunched up as Rin tried to unfold his arms, stubbornly unmoving in his sleep. Rin sighed and called his name a little louder, barely getting a response. He didn’t want to wake up Hana, but Sousuke slept like the dead.

 

“Sousuke, get up or I’m going to get mean,” he warned, voice louder and sterner. Sousuke just shifted in his sleep, getting more comfortable. Rin sighed and jabbed a finger in Sousuke’s side, causing the other to jump up and yelp, gripping the wounded area.

 

“What was that for!?” he hissed. Rin rolled his eyes and grabbed him by the arm, prompting him to stand up.

 

“Come to bed idiot,” Rin ordered. Sousuke blinked and looked back at the couch.

 

“Where’s Hana?”

 

“Put her to bed already,” he informed him as they walked out of the living room, Sousuke hitting the lights as they passed. Rin flicked off the hallway light once they reached the top of the stairs and the nightlight plugged into the wall flicked on, lighting the way to their bedroom.

 

Rin didn’t bother turn on the lights as they went for the bed, knowing the track by heart. Sousuke flopped onto the bed and stuffed his arms under his pillow. Rin pulled back the covers, yanking them out from under Sousuke who barely made an effort in helping, before joining him. He threw the covers over Sousuke’s back, trying to spread them out as best as he can before he fell back onto his pillow and yawned.

 

“Night,” Rin mumbled, rolling onto his side.

 

Sousuke rolled over to him, throwing an arm over his waist and pulling him in tight. He kissed the back of his neck and mumbled something into Rin’s shirt. Rin grabbed Sousuke’s hand and brought it up to his mouth for a kiss in response before settling down, sleep well on its way.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“When are we going to see Grandma and Auntie in Japan?” Hana asked, fingers curled around Rin’s hair. Rin tried to move on reflex, hissing when his hair got tugged on both sides before settling back down. “Dad don’t move! You’re messing up the braid.”

 

“You want to go to Japan?” Sousuke hummed, trained fingers weaving Rin’s hair.

 

Originally he had been braiding pigtails for Hana but once he had finished she demanded that they put braids in Rin’s. Rin relented under her pleas and now they were diligently braiding small pieces of his hair on either side of his head. Sousuke himself had barrettes in his hair, holding back what little of his bangs he had left after his recent cut. Matching ones were in Hana’s hair holding back the small strands that wouldn’t be held down.

 

“Cause Grandma and Auntie always come here to visit. We never go there,” she explained.

 

Rin, who was fiddling with his phone patiently while they worked, stopped and let out a wistful sigh. It’s not that he hadn’t wanted to take Hana to Japan, but he was a bit worried about how she would feel with so little English around. Even if she was picking it up rather quickly, she’d still probably feel left out. It was actually hard enough for his mom trying to communicate with her.

 

“Well we can go visit them for Christmas if you want,” Rin said, “instead of celebrating it here.”

 

“Will there be snow?” she asked, eyes wide and Rin laughed.

 

“Maybe,” Sousuke hummed, “it depends on the weather.”

 

“And we wouldn’t be able to stay that long. Maybe when I get a real vacation we can go for a month or two,” Rin commented offhandedly, pulling out his phone.

 

He would like to spend some actual time there, and show Hana his home and his friends. He hadn’t seen his friends in a while, but it wasn’t that unusual with how busy they all were. They settled for video calls and emails, but still he wanted to see them for more than a day or two through pure accident. And now that Makoto and Haru had moved back to Iwatobi there were even less chances of seeing them during his work trips.

 

“That might be a long time coming, but in the meantime we should visit even if it’s just for a little, right?” Sousuke asked dropping the last braid on his side. Rin nodded, Hana giving up on her side with a frustrated huff.

 

“Hey, make sure to take those out again,” Rin reminded them. Getting braids out was always a pain; he never liked having them because of it. Hana took the braids out with a surprising gentleness for an eight year old, but it probably was because she knew how painful it could be if you weren’t.

 

“Wait, wait! I want to do that side too,” Hana said, pushing Sousuke’s hands out of the way. Once she finished her three braids she crawled around the couch to the other side and started pulling Sousuke’s set out.

 

“So Christmas?” Rin asked, already emailing his mom.

 

“Christmas.”

 

“Yes!” Hana cheered, throwing a fist in the air.


	4. Hana’s Transformation (Age 8)

Sousuke sat in the kitchen for Hana to be finished getting dressed and ready to go, fiddling with his phone. They were going out to meet with Amber who was in the area for the next few days. He was excited to see her after so long, especially with her being so busy traveling, but he was also a bit nervous about introducing Hana to her.

 

He missed the days that he was off with her and Nurul, but he had to put traveling aside for a while with Hana to take care of. He thought that maybe when Hana was a little older he would take her on a trip or two, he was sure she’d love it. If Rin ever got some time off from being a coach they could have a family trip.

 

“What do you think?” Hana said entering the kitchen and spinning around.

 

His eyebrows rose up to his hair line at her outfit. Gou had been there just the week before and took her out shopping. Hana was adamant about keeping all of her clothes a secret until she wanted to wear them, even though she was encouraged to put on a fashion show when they got home.

 

“Well?” she said, putting her hands on her hips.

 

She was practically oozing Rin’s aura; it was like looking at a miniature. She had on a loose blue button up with the sleeves rolled up, and a white t-shirt with a flower print underneath. She had jean capris on, cuffed, and a braided anklet sitting just above her pink socks.

 

Rin’s sense of style never faded even as they got older, so he wasn’t that surprised. Still, it made him wonder what would happen if he was wearing polo’s and khakis on the regular like some of his peers at work. Just because they were in their thirties didn’t mean there weren’t a lot of stiffs around.

 

“You look cute,” he answered, careful not to mention her likeness to Rin. If it wasn’t what she was going for, it’d make her upset, and if it was, she’d probably get embarrassed and mad that he pointed it out.

 

“Can you put my hair up?” She asked, satisfied with his answer. She held out her hair tie and turned around. He rolled the little elastic band onto his wrist.

 

“How do you want it?”

 

“High pony tail,” she hummed. Sousuke almost choked trying to hold down his laugh as he pulled her dark brown hair up. He combed back the strays with his hand before grabbing the tail firmly and slipping the hair tie off his wrist and onto her hair, twisting it and pulling it through again.

 

“All done,” he announced and Hana backed up and let him out of his seat. “Ready to go?”

 

“Ready!” She said as she made a beeline for the door. Sousuke laughed and texted Rin about it, Rin texting back that he wanted a picture.

 

He’d have to sneak one in later since she didn’t like taking pictures much.

 

*                            *                            *

 

Hana sat down in front of the full length mirror in her dads’ room and pulled her hair in front of her. Once she was sure she got everything, reaching behind her back to check, she picked up the scissors. They were a bit too large for her hand but she took one side of her hair in the other and started to cut it. The hair was too thick so she slowly had to chop at it until all of the pieces fell off.

 

She started cutting at the other side when she heard her dad calling for her. She quickly cut the rest of it off, determined to make its length disappear before he could stop her. He heard her name called again and the sound of steps rapidly approaching. She started picking up the hair she had cut, trying to clean up her mess, when he opened the door.

 

“Hana, what are you doing in here?” he asked, before his eyes darted to her hair and the floor. There was a moment of silence before he looked at her. “What’s going on?”

 

“I wanted to cut my hair like Daddy’s,” she mumbled.

 

There was another silence, and then he sighed and brought a hand up to his head, rubbing his temple. She knew he wasn’t actually angry with her, he was never angry with her, but she still felt bad anyways. But if she hadn’t cut it herself he wouldn’t have let her, he liked her hair long.

 

“You could have told me before you got rid of it all,” he said as he walked over and squatted down. He grabbed the scissors from her hands and looked at her hair. “Rin’s going to kill me if he sees you like this,” he mumbled.

 

“I’m sorry,” she said, feeling shame welling up in her. His hand came under her chin and pushed it back up to meet him. He didn’t look angry or sad, just concerned. He was always worried about her, sometimes too much.

 

“Why are you sorry?”

 

“Because now you can’t make my hair nice,” she whispered, averting her gaze, tears welling up. Her hand went up to touch the ends of her chopped hair. All of its length was gone, there would be no more long braids or fishtails.

 

“What are you talking about? Your hair will always be nice,” he chuckled. He stood up and held out a hand for her. “Come on, let’s clean this up and then I’ll help you cut your hair for real.”

 

“Like Daddy’s?” she asked, surprised. He scoffed and rolled his eyes before leaning down and poking her in the forehead. She closed her eyes and flinched away, hand going up to swat the offending appendage away.

 

“Who do you think cuts his hair for him in the first place?” he laughed. Hana looked up at him in surprise. Maybe that’s why he was so good at doing hair the first time she met him.

 

“Is that why your good at playing with hair? Do you want to become a hairdresser?”

 

“What?” Her dad laughed, harder than before. A hand came up to rub away a tear after he was done. She waited patiently for his answer, arms crossed. “No, I like playing with your hair and Rin’s hair because it’s you two. If you’re asking why I’m good at it, well that’s all Gou.”

 

Hana looked up in surprise and Sousuke walked out of the room, heading for the broom closet. Hana followed close behind him, hands still full of her hair.

 

“Auntie? You use to do her hair for her?”

 

“After Rin left,” he hummed, “Grandma didn’t have much time for that since she was always working, so I started taking over your dad’s job. After she started middle school she made me stop though. Probably embarrassed her.”

 

“You really like Auntie huh,” she said, mostly to herself.

 

“I do,” he replied, turning to her with vacuum in hand. “She’s always been a little sister to me.”

 

“Did you always know you were going to marry daddy?”

 

“Are we going to fix your hair or not?” he huffed, face turning red. He walked past her and back to the bedroom, the vacuum making a loud humming noise when it was plugged in. Hana walked into the bathroom and deposited her hair into the trash can. She closed the toilet seat and sat on it, waiting for him to return to fix her hair.

 

She’d ask again someday.

 

*                            *                            *

 

Rin woke up from his impromptu nap to the smell of Sousuke’s cologne burning the inside of his nose. He sprung up in an instant, intent on yelling at Sousuke to turn it down a bit, but as his mind started to wake up he remembered that Sousuke was already gone for the day. He got up and heard noises coming from the bathroom, and the closer he got the more potent the once pleasant aroma became.

 

“Hana?” Rin asked in surprise as he opened the door and saw her on the floor, wiping away at a puddle. Sousuke’s cologne bottle was there on the ground, neck broken off. Little shards sat next to it. “Hana stop, you might cut yourself.”

 

Hana had not looked up at him even once since he entered, but she picked her hands up off of the paper towel. Rin got down on the floor, pulling the hand towel hanging from the side of the sink and soaking up the perfume. He held out his hand for the roll of paper towels and she handed him them. He ripped off a piece and got up on his knees to turn on the sink, running it under for a second before turning it off and wringing out.

 

He unfolded the towel carefully and gently wiped up were the shards were, picking up all of the small invisible pieces. After he was done he wrapped it up and picked up the big pieces and the bottle off the floors, tossing them into the trash can. When he finished he got up onto his feet and washed his hands off before grabbing the soaked hand towel and depositing it in the sink temporarily.

 

“You want to tell me what happened?” He asked as he grabbed the cleaner out from underneath the sink cabinet and sprayed the floor. Hana said nothing, just ripped off a paper towel and started cleaning up. Once they were done the floor didn’t smell so strong, but the sink still did.

 

Rin started the water and tried to rinse as much of the smell out as he could, to little avail. At the very least it was no longer sopping wet with the cologne. Hana stood beside him, quietly staring at the ground.

 

“Alright,” he sighed, putting his hands on the sink and glancing over at her, “enough sulking, tell me what happened.”

 

Hana’s shoulders drew up, and she wrapped her arms around herself. Her hair fell in her face without her barrettes, and it was too short to catch them all in her low ponytail now that she had cut it. Rin felt a tug on his heart as she pouted.

 

“I wanted to,” she mumbled, not finishing her sentence.

 

“Wanted to? Use the cologne?” he finished for her and she nodded a short shaky nod.

 

Rin smiled, but immediately forced it down in case she looked up at him. Sousuke had kept telling him about how she idolized him and wanted to be just like him, but Rin always thought that she liked Sousuke a lot more. From her mannerisms to her interests, they all aligned with Sousuke’s.

 

“Well let’s wash some of it off, we smell ridiculous,” Rin said after a second. “The key to using cologne is not using too much, you know.”

 

Hana just nodded and Rin leaned down and grabbed her face between his hands. He squished her cheeks and kissed her forehead, taking an exaggerated sniff and she giggled, grabbing his arms, trying to push him away.

 

“Stop! You’re so gross,” she laughed. Rin just wrapped his arms around her and picked her up, smiling at the way she squealed.

 

“Well I guess you don’t smell that bad,” he admitted after pulling back. She smiled, pulling her arms out from his hold and wrapping them around him. She leaned up and smelt his forehead.

 

“You stink,” she retorted, snickering as she pulled back. Rin put on a shocked face.

 

“That’s not true, I showered this morning!”

 

“Didn’t shower good enough,” she said as she wiggled out of his arms and he loosened his grip, letting her down. She darted out of the room cackling and Rin counted to three before he chased after her.

 

“Hey! Get back here and apologize you brat! I don’t stink!”


	5. New House (Age 9)

 

“Where should I put my desk?” Hana asked, looking at her new room. The soft blue of her walls, which she had picked out herself, were already covered in her posters and shadowboxes. Normally there was an order to these things, but that didn’t stop Hana.

 

Sousuke picked up the small black vanity, the top mirror still sitting against the wall, and placed it down next to her bedframe.

 

“How about there?”

 

“No way, it looks too crowded,” she said before turning around. She walked over to the wall opposite the door, heat from the sun coming through the windows and hitting her back. She looked at her room’s layout and sighed.

 

“Move the bed frame closer to this wall,” Rin said as he came in with more boxes. “Having a bed in the sun is awful.”

 

Sousuke got up and slide the bedframe over to the wall as instructed. When he stepped back he noticed that it opened up the room a lot more. He shifted the vanity over a bit so that it was off centered and stepped back.

 

“Put it between the windows, it’ll fit.”

 

“Yeah Dad put it between the windows, the dresser is going over there.”

 

Sousuke’s head hung as he made an exaggerated sigh, façade cracking under Rin’s pointed glare before picking up the desk again and putting it in between the two windows. The mirror followed, Rin bringing it over and sliding it into its spot, checking it for wobbling before letting go and standing back.

 

“Perfect!” Hana cheered, before running over to her dresser. “Now move this one back over to the other side!”

 

This time Rin grabbed it and slid it over against the other wall, closer to the wall with the windows. Hana walked over carefully balancing her new standing jellyfish lamp that had been waiting out in the hall. She slipped, foot catching on the wire, but was saved when Sousuke grabbed her by her shirt. Using his other hand he grabbed the lamp from her. After he stood her up he walked over and placed it in the corner next to her dresser, plugging it in.

 

“Be careful when carrying big things like that,” Sousuke sighed.

 

He was already getting tired off the process of moving in. But still, it was their first house and Rin and Hana were adamant about unpacking and decorating together. Rin offhandedly agreed as he started emptying the box with Hana’s clothes, picking up the neatly stacked piles and putting them in her dresser drawers.

 

Hana was already busy rifling through one of the smaller boxes, pulling out her favorite trinkets and putting them on her dresser desk. She pulled out a photo frame of the three of them and placed it down carefully, angling it on her vanity. When she was done she went across the room to grab her vanity stool out of its box, brand new, and carried it over. She sat it down and plopped down on it to see if she liked how her set up looked from there.

 

“Pizza or Chinese?” Sousuke asked, checking the time on his phone.

 

“Pizza,” they both said in unison, too focused on their tasks.

 

Sousuke smiled and left the room as he dialed up the local pizza place.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“Dad!” Hana called, sitting in her bedroom holding onto her cards. “Dad!”

 

“Which one?” Two voices called back. Hana picked up the cards and walked out of her room, heading for the kitchen.

 

“The small one!” she replied with a giggle, stepping down the stairs slowly. She hated stairs the most, but she liked how much room their house had so she didn’t mind them too much. It was always a pain going up and down though.

 

“I’m not even that short!” Came his retort, before he walked over to the stairs. He met her half way, scooping her up by her armpits and carrying her down the rest of them. She didn’t need his help, but she liked that he would anyways. Once they reached the end he put her down.

 

“Dad let’s put up the cards,” she said, holding up some of them. “These are the kitchen ones.”

 

“Ah, we should probably make some more of those now huh?” He smiled as he grabbed the group he was offered. “Actually we should probably get rid of the romanized spellings all together now, huh? Think you can handle it?”

 

“I can!” Hana answered, excited. They walked into the kitchen and Hana put her two hands on the tall seat, hoisting herself up into it. Their new kitchen table was high up and had tall chairs too match, but she liked the way they look and it wasn’t so hard to get up that she couldn’t do it by herself.

 

“Sousuke,” he called, “go grab the index cards and markers from the office.”

 

“Got it,” her other dad called.

 

When he returned he had a huge stack of index cards and three markers. He set them on the table before heading to the fridge to get himself a drink.

 

“I want one!” Hana said, ripping open the plastic wrapping around the index cards. “Please.”

 

“Yeah, me too,” her daddy said.

 

She had started joking that Rin was her small dad and Sousuke was her tall dad, but when they were together she called Rin daddy to make things easier. It was confusing at first for them but she didn’t care. Once they had asked her if she wanted to use Japanese to call one of them, but she said it’d be the same since they were both Japanese anyways.

 

“Here.”

 

Two cola cans were sat down on the table next to them and then he took a seat. Her dad had brought three markers but he didn’t bother pick one up as she and her daddy wrote cards. She wrote the ones she could remember how to write and daddy was in charge of writing the new ones.

 

“Jeez you guys work fast,” her dad mumbled as they finished the kitchen set and moved on to the living room set.

 

“But there’s a lot more rooms now,” Hana said with a sigh. “It’s going to take forever to finish.”

 

“That’s why after we’re done your dad will put them up while we take a nice long movie break,” her daddy said, nudging the other with his elbow. Her dad just rolled his eyes and mumbled an affirmative. Hana snickered at his misfortune before focusing back on writing the Japanese in the proper order.


	6. To Japan! (Age 9)

“Welcome home,” his mother whispered. Rin sat his luggage down and hugged her, sighing as he felt her embrace and her mouth pressed against his forehead. She still felt as warm and as loving as always. He stepped back after a second and let Sousuke in for a hug, carrying Hana in his arms. She had stayed up the whole plane ride and conked right out after they landed.

 

His mother wrapped her arms around the both of them gently. She kissed Hana’s sleeping forehead and Sousuke’s cheek, whispering a welcome home to him as well.

 

“We’re home,” Sousuke whispered back, a bright smile on his lips.

 

Sousuke moved to lean back against the wall and Rin helped him get out of his shoes while he balanced their daughter in his arms. Once he was free he walked in and followed his mom to Rin’s old room, which was now set up with a big futon and a new bed. His mom went all out when she heard that they would be visiting for the summer.

 

After seeing them both help get Hana into bed Rin went back and put on his shoes. He got the rest of their luggage out of their rental car and stacked them in the entry way. Sousuke was already there carrying their luggage to their room as he untied his shoes. When Sousuke came back he had his and Hana’s jackets in his arms, hanging them up on the hooks.

 

Rin shrugged off his windbreaker and hung it up with them, finally feeling relaxed now that they were all there. Sousuke wrapped his arms around him and yawned, it had been a long day for all of them. He ran his hand through Sousuke’s hair and placed a kiss against his ear before wrapping his arms around him and letting his head drop onto his shoulders.

 

“You two should go to sleep,” he heard his mother whisper. They both looked up at the hallway entry and saw her there smiling at them. “We can all talk tomorrow.”

 

“When’s Gou coming home?” Rin asked, yawning into the back of his hand. Sousuke also yawned and his mother tried to force hers down, giggling to herself.

 

“Sunday morning, but I’m serious,” she said, shooing them with her hands. “Go sleep. We can talk in the morning.”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” Sousuke grumbled, grabbing Rin’s hand. “Night mom.”

 

“Night boys,” she smiled, walking over to the living room where her book and her tea sat. Rin said a goodnight as he was dragged back to their room. Sousuke was already opening the suitcase with their pajamas by the time Rin shut the door.

 

They slipped off their pants and put on their pajamas, only Rin bothering to change his shirt too, Sousuke had dove for the futon as soon as he was done. Rin smiled and turned off the light after taking a second glance at Hana, who was curled up in the bed snoozing away. He carefully stepped over to the futon and slid in, looping an arm around Sousuke’s back.

 

He was out in seconds.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“Hello Hana-chan. It’s nice finally meet you in person,” Makoto said with a bright smile. Hana smiled back and bowed her head. Makoto brought up his hand to cover his mouth as he chuckled. Haru was standing next to him, a twitch of a smile on his lips.

 

“It’s nice to finally meet you, I’m Matsuoka Hana.”

 

“Your Japanese is very good,” Haru commented, turning his gaze above her to Sousuke and Rin. Rin was grinning with blatant and shameless pride. Sousuke was also smiling, a softer smugness coming off of him. Haru’s gaze returned to Hana.

 

“Thank you very much,” she said, a grin on her lips. She stepped back a bit shyly after that, hands going up for Rin’s and Sousuke’s. Makoto cooed at the sight before stepping back and inviting them into the house.

 

“It’s so good to see you guys,” Rin said finally, after Hana released his hand to go see the cat laying down in their living room. He gave Makoto a hug, squeezing him tight when he heard him laugh. Haru only rolled his eyes and waited patiently for their hug to end. Rin squeezed the other motionless boy too, half to spite him and half because he really did miss them.

 

“It’s good to see you too Rin, it’s been so long. It’s nice to see the both of you.” Makoto let a small apologetic smile slip, and Haru touched his elbow, giving him a look. “But you’re here now, and Haru made dinner already so we shouldn’t keep it waiting, right?”

 

“Good, I’m starving,” Rin laughed, following Makoto to living room were the low rise table was. Sousuke followed Haru into the kitchen to help carry the dishes on instinct. Haru turned to Sousuke and gave a gentle smile.

 

“You look well,” he said, turning away again as he carried the hot plate of fish into the other room. Sousuke followed close behind with a lidded pot that Haru had motioned for him to grab.

 

“I am,” he replied, “you and Makoto seem to be doing well.”

 

“We are.”

 

Makoto got up to help grab the rest and they worked in silence, Rin talking to Hana about the house and the cats in English as they got ready. When they all sat down Hana was the first to clasp her hands together and say her thankfulness in the exact way Rin and Sousuke told her they do in Japan. Makoto and Haru looked surprised before they all followed suit.

 

“I love the fish!” Hana said after taking a few bites. Haru’s eyes sparkled under her praise, and Rin was scoffing.

 

“Don’t give him any ideas, he’d feed you fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you let him.”

 

“That’s not true,” he mumbled, turning his gaze away. Makoto let out an awkward laugh and Hana looked only slightly confused. Sousuke passed Hana more vegetables just to be sure that she ate something other than the fish and rice.

 

The dinner conversation was normal. Some of it was slow as they spoke to Hana or when Rin was translating. By the end of dinner they had caught each other up on everything, things happening at the school, how Makoto was enjoying being the supervisor and coach for the swim team. How Haru was drawing and painting more often now that he didn’t have anything he particularly had to do.

 

Rin talked about coaching in Australia and Sousuke told them about how he was planning picking up a part time job again. Since Hana was getting settled in and they were finally in their own house he felt it was time to take them out on a real family vacation. Hana told them, to the best of her ability, how much she was enjoying it there and how nice it was to spend every day with her Grandma and Auntie.

 

By the end of the night Makoto and Haru were completely in love with Hana. They invited them for a picnic at the beach the day after to go swimming, and when Haru heard Hana’s talking about how much she liked it he was ready to take her to the pool right then. If Rin wasn’t a little smug about it, Sousuke certainly was.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“Hana-chan you know what we should get?”

 

“What Nagisa-chan?” Hana asked looking up at the other with bright eyes. He gave her a wink and turned to wave at Rei and the others.

 

“Rei-chan! Hana-chan says she wants ice cream! We have to get her ice cream don’t we?” he pleaded, pretending to be innocent. Hana started to giggle at his dramatic act as he grabbed her and rubbed his cheek against hers. “She’s nothing but skin and bones! She’ll die if we don’t get her ice cream.”

 

“You two don’t need any more sugar,” Rin scoffed.

 

Rei, Sousuke, and Makoto all had identical looks of defeat and Nagisa instructed Hana to pull out her best puppy eyes.

 

“Please dad?” Hana begged, putting her hands up in a praying motion like Nagisa beside her.

 

“Alright,” Sousuke mumbled after a second, looking away when everyone turned to him.

 

“Yes!” They cheered, high fiving each other.

 

“Sou-chan you’re so obedient,” Nagisa teased after they started walking again.

 

Sousuke didn’t deem him worthy a retort and Makoto tried not to smile about it. Haru openly raised an eyebrow at the other and if it wasn’t for Hana’s excited cheering Sousuke would have probably taken it all back. Everyone there already knew he was weak to Rin and Hana anyways, he had been proving how soft he was that entire week.

 

“Hana-chan, what kind of ice cream do you want?” Rei asked as he joined Nagisa by her side as they walked to the convenience store.

 

“Don’t know,” she said with a shrug, “something tasty!”

 

“Does she like cola flavor like her dads?” Makoto asked with a grin and Hana stuck her tongue out in disgust.

 

“Soda is to drink,” she said, “cola flavor things taste bad.”

 

“A rebellion against her parents!” Nagisa laughed and Hana asked Rei what he meant, Rei stumbling on his English before Rin came to save him. He scooped Hana up in his arms, noticing how tired she was getting from walking.

 

“She can like whatever she wants to like, besides she likes the drink so who cares,” Rin grumbled.

 

“Are there really ice creams that are put in balloons?” Hana asked Sousuke and Sousuke nodded. “Can I have one of those?”

 

“They’re really messy,” he warned and Nagisa came bouncing up.

 

“What’s ice cream without it being messy! Besides, how could you do this to her? What does she eat ice cream from normally? Tubs?” He said in fake horror. Hana’s face scrunched up because she thought he was being funny, but she wasn’t sure what he was saying.

 

“Be quite Nagisa, you’re disturbing the neighborhood,” Rin snorted, pushing Nagisa aside when he tried to cling to him. “You’re going to make me trip.”

 

“Rin-chan you’re so mean,” he whined, falling back to Rei and cling to his side. “At least I have my Rei-chan.”

 

“We’re in public!” Rei objected, trying to peel the other while he held on desperately, laughing his head off.

 

“What are we going to eat for dinner?” Haru questioned suddenly, everyone turned to him. Sousuke and Rin shrugged in unison, and Nagisa started rattling off a bunch of different exotic and expensive ideas.

 

“What do you want to make Haru?” Makoto asked, tilting his head and smiling in that way he does.

 

“Mackerel,” he answered.

 

“Yes!” Hana cheered, recognizing the word.

 

Rin and Sousuke groaned in unison and Makoto laughed, although he also looked somewhat disheartened. Nagisa looked shocked at her excitement.

 

“She likes mackerel!? Hana-chan should have been Haru’s daughter!” Nagisa exclaimed.

 

“She should have,” Haru agreed.

 

Everyone was laughing after that, even Hana who was only laughing because she thought the rest of them were acting so funny.


	7. Birth Givers (Age 10)

 “Dad! Your phone is ringing again,” Hana called from the kitchen.

 

She heard her father groan and giggled at his resistance. He was taking a nap on the living room couch and was adamant about not getting up. He barely answered his phone if it wasn’t her dad anyways. He had a special ringtone so that he could just ignore the phone whenever it wasn’t playing.

 

“Who is it?”

 

Hana looked down at the foreign number, humming. It was a really odd number. It didn’t look like any she recognized anyways.

 

“Don’t know, it’s just a number.”

 

“Answer it if you want, but hang up if it’s not important,” he answered, frustration in his voice. Hana picked up the phone and tapped the small green button that had popped up on the screen.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Hello,” a voice crackled from the other side. “My name is Mr. Yamazaki, I’m looking for Yama, excuse me. I’m looking for Matsuoka Sousuke? I was told this was his personal cellphone number.”

 

Hana hummed, barely understanding the man over the disturbance in the calls signal and his heavy accent. The accent sounded familiar, kind of like when she would talk to her aunt Gou. Maybe he was Japanese? That would explain the odd number, if it was an international call.

 

“This is his phone, but my dad’s sleeping right now so can I take a message?”

 

She smiled when she heard her dad’s quiet laugh in the background. There was a small pause in the call, and she wondered if it had been dropped, but the strange crackling noise was still there.

 

“Your father?” The voice finally asked. Her smile fell in a second, and a strange feeling settled in her stomach, though she couldn’t explain why.

 

“Yes, this is his daughter Hana Matsuoka speaking.” There was another pause, a little longer that time. She felt increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation.

 

“Matsuoka, as in Matsuoka Rin?”

 

“Yeah, he’s also my dad,” she curtly replied, “but he isn’t here right now. Should I just have them call you back later or?”

 

A second of silence and then a noise, she blinked and looked at the phone, the call time displayed in digital numbers. She chewed at her top lip as she stared down at the number, only just hearing her father calling from the other room, asking what the other person wanted.

 

“He hung up already,” she replied, staring at the phone. She jumped off the stool, holding the phone tight in her hand as she walked into the living room. Her dad was just lying across the couch, arms folded behind his head, already awake but being stubborn about it. She felt a bit better seeing him, though that funny feeling in her tummy didn’t go away.

 

“Dad, do you know a Mr. Yamazaki?”

 

She jumped as her father’s eyes flew open and he bolted upright. She held out the phone for him to take, watching him with a fear in her heart as his eyes grew wider, staring at the number on the screen. His fingers shook a little and there was a small dip in his cheek where he was pulling the inner skin in between his teeth. His other hand, a little steadier after grabbing hers, was warm in the palm but his fingertips were cold. Hana squeezed it back as he looked up to her, she took a deep breath.

 

“What did he say to you?”

 

“Just his name and that he was looking for you.”

 

Hana sat down next to him on the couch, waffling their fingers. She stared at the phone in his hand and then looked up at him. His eyes seemed cold and distant, and the frown on his face was small but deep. She hadn’t seen him like this before and it was scaring her a bit. She had seen him upset with dad, seen him upset because of work, or the things people would say about her and dad, but this was something different than that. It just looked tired.

 

“Did he ask you anything else?” He whispered, blinking a few times before bringing the back of his hand up to his forehead, the phone still firm in his grip.

 

“No, not really. He just asked if when I said my name was Matsuoka that I meant Matsuoka Rin and hung up.”

 

He let go of her then, and dropped the phone onto the coffee table before burying his head in his hands. Hana held her breath as he let out a large sigh, digging his palms into his eyes. She really wished dad would come home sooner, she didn’t know how to help him if he was reacting because of why she thought he was. She just leaned onto his shoulder to try and comfort him.

 

“Dad, your name was Yamazaki right?” She whispered. “Was that your dad?”

 

“It was, probably,” he answered, his voice far too soft and quiet.

 

“But how did he get your number? And why call now?” Hana pressed, confused and wanting to understand what was happening. She had heard about how they had parted, so it made little sense to her that he’d be calling.

 

“I, I don’t know.”

 

Hana’s throat sealed up tight and she threw her arms around her dad, squeezing him tight and only relaxing when he finally stopped curling in on himself and hugged her back. She kissed his cheek and wrapped herself around him, trying to reassure him that everything was fine and he did not have to worry. She shouldn’t have answered that call.

 

“It’s going to be okay. Daddy said he was coming home early today, remember?”

 

“Yeah,” he mumbled against her shoulder. Hana felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she kept them down. She could be strong for him until dad came home. He was always being so strong for the both of them, she’s sure dad thought so too. He’d come home and make him feel better.

 

*                            *                            *

 

“He what!?” Rin whispered and Hana held his hand tighter. He knew something was wrong as soon as Hana met him at the door and pulled him down to hear her better as she told him about what happened.

 

“And Dad was really upset, I think he wanted to cry but he didn’t he just said he was going to take a nap and went to your room. He didn’t close the door either. I think he’s worried he scared me,” she finished and Rin looked up at the stairs before toeing off his shoes and dropping his stuff.

 

“I’m going to go talk to him, you can come if you want,” he said looking down at her.

 

“But is that okay?” she asked wide eyed and confused. He gave her a sad smile and grabbed her hand.

 

“You want to know what’s going on don’t you?”

 

She nodded and he picked her up, crossing the house and ascending the stairs in a quick pace. As soon as they reached the top he set her down and went ahead of her, down the corridor and to their room. Sousuke did leave the door wide open, though the light was off. When Rin entered the room he knew right away that Sousuke wasn’t sleeping at all, he was lying on his bad shoulder.

 

Even though the wound had long since healed, Sousuke was never on it after he fell asleep, his body too used to avoid sleeping on it at all. The only time he was on it was when he was awake and letting his conscious mind move him. Rin’s heart hurt, wishing he had known about it sooner. If he had known he would have left even earlier than he did.

 

“Sousuke,” Rin called as he crossed over to him, sitting down on the bed and putting a hand on his shoulder. Sousuke opened his eyes and they looked so tired. He sat up without any thought and wrapped his arms around Rin, digging his face into the crook of his neck.

 

“I didn’t expect it,” he said quietly, “and now Hana had to see it.”

 

“It’s okay,” Rin whispered, kissing his shoulder. “Hana’s really worried about her dad though, so why don’t you tell her why you’re really upset?”

 

Sousuke pulled back and looked at the doorway where Hana was standing. His forehead creased as he gave her an apologetic smile. She walked forward slowly, worried that she wasn’t supposed to be there. Rin picked her up and put her on the bed all of them making room to sit on it.

 

“I didn’t want you speaking to him, or hearing from him. I forgot about them honestly, but when we first got you I remembered them and I got really scared,” he admitted, a pathetic look on his face. “I was scared about being like them, I was scared about treating you wrong, and I was scared about them knowing you exist.”

 

“Why?” Hana asked, confused by the last part. Rin pulled her onto his lap, arms curled around her, head resting on her shoulder.

 

“Because you’re our daughter. You know what happened when Sousuke left them, but we didn’t tell you about what happened after. We thought everything would be okay, we didn’t hear from them for ten years, but that’s because we didn’t know that your grandmother and aunt were hiding things from us.”

 

“Hiding things?”

 

Sousuke fell back onto the bed, bringing his hands up to his eyes thinking about. Rin hummed, squeezing her tight. She turned in her seat to see him better, waiting for an explanation.

 

“Sousuke’s mother started to, well she wasn’t in right state of mind. For a while she pretended as if Sousuke was living the life she wanted, and when people asked she would tell them whatever she thought of. It became a problem when she started saying that it was Gou who Sousuke was dating, that they were going to get married,” he sighed, rocking them back and forth.

 

“Gou had to go around correcting people, and one of the ladies in his mother’s group of friends heard about Sousuke and I. She confronted her about it and she kind of, snapped. After that she kept sending mail to us, but she didn’t know where we lived so it all went to my mom. She stopped reading the letters after a while.”

 

“But the fact that she’s harassing my family doesn’t change,” Sousuke interrupted, anger evident in his voice. “The letters started because she had to get rid of the home phone.”

 

“Why is she acting like that?”

 

“We don’t know,” Rin admitted, rubbing her arms reassuringly. “Sousuke was worried because he didn’t want you to face that harassment. Neither of us do, that’s why he was upset. It would be best if they didn’t know about you, but it’s different now. Still, I didn’t expect for your father to call.”

 

The last part was clearly for Sousuke and he let his arms drop above his head. They sat there in silence and Hana started fiddling with the hem of her shirt, twisting it and untwisting it. Sousuke sat up and got out of the bed, walking over to their bookshelf and pulling out an envelope. He tossed it to Rin, but Hana caught it, confused. Rin took it out of her hands and opened it.

 

“I thought you threw it out,” Rin commented as he tore the envelope open. Sousuke sat on the side of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees, looking defeated. “Do you want me to read it to you?”

 

“No, I don’t. You read it and see if there’s anything important,” he sighed, rubbing his eyes again. Hana turned to look back at Rin, and he glanced at her and kissed her forehead before unfolding the paper. Hana didn’t recognize much, it was all in Japanese, but she could recognize who it was from.

 

They sat in silence again, Rin reading the paper, biting his lip. When he was done he crumpled the paper up and tossed it at the trashcan, hitting the rim and dropping in. Hana got off of his lap and crumpled up the envelope, dropping it into the trash can herself. She glanced back at the two of them, silently thinking.

 

“Why did you have a letter from her?” she finally asked.

 

Rin rubbed the back of his head and scooted himself over to sit next to Sousuke, grabbing his hand in his and rubbing it. Sousuke kept his eyes focused down on their hands, finally moving his fingers to curl around Rin’s.

 

“That was sent to my work, the handwriting on the front isn’t hers. We think someone helped her send it to us. She never would have sent me a letter otherwise,” he explained. “She’s dying, of terminal cancer. Or at least, that’s what the letter said.”

 

Rin turned his face to Sousuke and brought his free hand up to touch his face, smiling at him. Sousuke turned his head and kissed his hand, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

 

“You were right though,” he whispered. “There was nothing in there that you needed to read.”

 

“That’s probably why he called,” Sousuke said, eyes darting to his phone that was on their bedside table. “But I won’t go see her.”

 

“You won’t?” and “You’re sure?” came out in unison. Hana stood stock-still at the look in his eyes when he heard them. He scratched the back of his head and looked up at Hana, a sad smile on his face.

 

“Do you want me to go?” he asked and Hana shook her head.

 

“No! You shouldn’t go, they only hurt you don’t they?” She walked back over them and grabbed his other hand squeezing it. He brought her small hand up to his lips and kissed it before leaning his forehead against it.

 

“You won’t have any regrets in not going?” Rin pressed, voice firm, hand gripping Sousuke’s in a tight hold.

 

“No,” he confessed, “I won’t.”

 

“Then you don’t have to go.”

 

Rin wound his arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. Sousuke wrapped one arm around him and wrapped the other around Hana, pulling them into a group hug. Rin lifted his arm up and around Hana to include her and kissed them both. Once he finished he let his forehead rest on theirs in their little group huddle.

 

“When he calls again,” Sousuke whispered, “if he does, that is.”

 

“I’ll be here,” Rin answered. “We don’t have to wait if you don’t want, you could call him.”

 

“Hana,” Sousuke said and she looked at him. Hana pulled back out of the huddle and wrapped her arms around him kissing his cheek like her daddy did. He let go of Rin to give her a tight squeeze. “I love you.”

 

“I love you too,” she said with a smile once he put her down.

 

“Hana,” Rin started, “go put on your pajamas and brush your teeth, and when you’re done go pick out a movie to watch. We’ll come join you in a little, okay?”

 

She nodded, getting the hint. She closed the door as she left and could be heard parading down the hallway to her room.

 

“You okay?” Rin asked after she was gone, turning back to him. “Tell me the truth.”

 

“I’ll be okay,” Sousuke sighed, “but another hug would be nice.”

 

Sousuke let out a sheepish grin that barely reached his tired eyes and Rin didn’t have it in him to laugh. He pulled him into the tightest hug he could manage, peppering him with kisses. Sousuke just let out a deep breath, content as he pulled Rin onto his lap, burying his head into Rin like he never wanted to leave. Rin held him in his arms and felt the same little boy he remembered.

 

There were some scars that hurt to think about, even after they were healed.


	8. Firsts (Age 11)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An unexpected double update! I couldn’t just leave it at that last chapter lol… I’m too weak hearted to do that to myself let alone others

Rin felt like he was in the twilight zone, everything outside of his body didn’t seem real. First he saw blood on the couch and then suddenly he was rushed out by Sousuke with a handwritten note of what he should get at the store and an order to return as quickly as possible.

 

His hand was curled into a tight fist holding onto the plastic shopping back in his hands as he opened their front door and shot up the stairs and to the bathroom. The door was open and he could hear Hana’s crying over the sound of the shower.

 

Sousuke was sitting there on the floor with his back to the closed curtains, talking to her when he spotted him.

 

“That was quick,” he observed. “Did you have a hard time finding them?”

 

Rin shook his head, unable to answer as he dropped the bag next to him. Rin looked and saw that her bloody clothes were nowhere to be seen; only her old pajamas were sitting folded on the sink counter. He sat down across from Sousuke awaiting an explanation.

 

“I threw them in the wash,” he whispered, noticing his confusion, “and I cleaned up the couch already. But Hana’s still upset.”

 

“Hana are you okay?” Rin asked, speaking up. Hana’s crying had slowed to hiccups and sniffling. Sousuke opened the plastic bag and checked the contents before getting up.

 

“Hana, have they taught you how to use pads in school yet?”

 

“Yes,” she answered, voice hoarse from crying.

 

“Okay, well I got the ones that Aunt Gou said to get. Will you be okay by yourself?”

 

“Yes,” Hana answered again. “Is the couch ruined?”

 

“No it’s not,” he chuckled, helping Rin up to his feet. Rin just stared at the ocean themed shower curtain, lost. “Do you want me to change your sheets? I know you like the striped one too, but you might bleed on the strawberry ones.”

 

“Yes please,” she whimpered. “But what about the covers?”

 

“I’ll change those too,” he reassured. “We’re leaving now, okay?” Sousuke said as he pushed Rin out the door and grabbed the handle.

 

“Okay.”

 

Once they had exited the room and the door clicked he turned to Rin and laughed at how white he was in the face. He looked completely lost. He knocked his elbow against Rin’s side before he walked back downstairs.

 

“What was that?” Rin asked as they reached the kitchen. “How did you know all that stuff?”

 

“When it was decided we were going to have a girl I asked Gou,” he said with a shrug, pulling out some bread to make lunch. Rin sat down on the kitchen chair and watched Sousuke like he was watching something phenomenal.

 

“But how come you weren’t surprised? Didn’t that scare you?” He pressed further, in denial that Sousuke could handle that situation better than he did.

 

“No, but it wasn’t like I wasn’t scared the first time,” he answered as he sat down across from Rin. All of the ingredients for his lunch were displayed on the table and ready for assembling.

 

“The first time? I thought this was her first time,” Rin accused, stealing a pickle out of the jar sitting in front of him.

 

“It was, but it wasn’t my first time. The first time I had to deal with that was with Gou.”

 

Rin’s jaw dropped and so did the other half of his pickle. Sousuke eyed him with amusement as he spread mayo onto his bread, waiting for his shock to wear off. Rin picked up his chin and pulled out his phone to write Gou asking if there was any credibility to Sousuke’s sudden question.

 

“What are you doing?” Sousuke asked, exasperation in his voice. “Are you seriously writing her about it? That was forever ago. If she didn’t tell you it’s because she didn’t want you to know.”

 

“When did this happen? How old were you two?” Rin integrated him, ignoring the truth to his words. He was still going to ask, this was just ridiculous.

 

“When we were out buying a present for your birthday the first year after you left,” Sousuke admitted. “She got hers early too so it was really hard on her, especially because we were in the mall when it happened. Your mom was always working so I said I’d take her when she wanted to go shopping for your present.”

 

“What happened?” Rin asked, cleaning off his side of the table after he accidently put his hand in the pickle juice.

 

“Nothing, she got her period and ran to the bathroom and I followed her because I was too scared and I didn’t understand what was going on. Almost got kicked out because I wasn’t supposed to be in the girls’ room, but a nice older lady helped us out when I said I was her brother,” he told him with little interest in the story.

 

“You said you were her brother?” Rin grinned and Sousuke flicked a chip at him.

 

“What else was I supposed to do? She was bleeding and scared and alone in a public bathroom,” Sousuke grumbled in his embarrassment. Rin said nothing, only grinning as he grabbed the bag of chips and started to eat them. “Stop that.”

 

“Stop what?” Rin hummed.

 

“Stop looking at me like that,” Sousuke deadpanned.

 

“What? I’m just impressed is all,” Rin hummed, enjoying pushing Sousuke further into embarrassment. “I mean honestly, who knew Sousuke of all people could be such a good big brother or father.”

 

“Shut up,” Sousuke groaned into his hands.

 

“I think it’s kind of cute,” he continued, leaning up onto the table to get a better look at him. “You’re so attentive to the small things. It’s what I love about you, you know.”

 

Sousuke peaked up from behind his hands, a pathetic attempt at a glare in his eyes and Rin smirked at him.

 

“What do I love about you again?” Sousuke sighed, sitting back up. Rin’s smirk dropped and he tossed the bag of chips at him.

 

“Hey!”

 

Sousuke was laughing in his seat after that and before they knew it the whole kitchen was a mess of food, chips and lettuce everywhere. There was even mayo in Rin’s hair and Sousuke’s face had a nice slice of tomato smack him square on the forehead.

 

“What are you doing?” Hana asked, entering the kitchen. She was dressed in her pajamas and looking at them like they lost their mind. They both turned to each other before they looked at her and grinned.

 

“Having lunch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as a side note I'd just like to say that although Sousuke and Rin could probably handle that and a good deal of other "uncomfortable" parent things they probably left most of the details for "The Talk" to Gou lol probably bought Hana an age appropriate book about it too lmao (A+ dads ngl)


	9. Japanese Lessons (Age 12)

 “And then we had to talk about what we wanted to be when we grow up,” she finished. Hana was sitting at the coffee table in the living room writing in her Japanese workbook. Sousuke was fast asleep on the couch, taking the entire space. Rin sat down next to her on the floor, sitting his drink down on a makeshift coaster he made out of a paper towel.

 

“You could have waited until I came back,” he whispered. “What if you woke up Dad?”

 

Hana looked up at him with the dullest look he had ever seen and he bit down a grin, it was the same face Sousuke would give him when he had thought Rin had said something stupid. She went back to her workbook, flipping the page and starting on the next one.

 

“Anyways,” she said, causing Rin to snicker, “I told them I want to be a teacher when I grow up.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Rin hummed, folding his arms on top of the coffee table, leaning forward to see her progress. “What kind of teacher?”

 

“A Japanese teacher,” Hana answered and Rin looked up at her in shock. “I was teaching my friends today how to introduce themselves too.”

 

“Really now,” Rin said, mostly to himself. Hana finished the page and flipped back to the other, pushing it towards Rin for him to correct. She handed him out her special purple gel pen to make corrections with. He took it from her and started reading her work. He was surprised to see no mistakes on the first page, and only two mistakes on the second, forgetting her grammar. He circled the spots and gave her back the book.

 

“Well you certainly could be one,” he laughed. “Do you see what you did wrong or do you want me to explain it to you?”

 

“Hold on,” Hana said, putting up a hand as she reread what she wrote. She wrote under it and handed it back and he grinned to see she fixed the order.

 

“Looks good,” he complimented her. She grinned and put her workbook away. Pulling out a journal she was keeping. Rin’s eyes widened when he saw it was filled with Japanese characters instead of English. Everything was pretty basic, talking about what she did at school and what she saw. He looked back up at her and smiled.

 

“Can we go shopping for kids books?” Hana hummed as she wrote. Her script was still slow and a bit staggered, but Rin could still easily read it which was what really counted. “And maybe speak more Japanese at home?”

 

Hana looked up at him with hopeful eyes and Rin’s heart swelled. He was sure that if Sousuke was awake he’d be so happy to hear it. Even after using English all of these years, Japanese came more naturally to him.

 

It wasn’t until Hana moved in that they stopped using Japanese all together at home. It was only when they were in their room or talking about something particularly difficult that they would slip back into it. It was all Sousuke’s idea, because he didn’t want Hana to feel left out since she didn’t understand it. Still, he knew that Sousuke felt better using his native tongue, and he’d be over joyed at hearing Hana’s enthusiasm in truly learning it.

 

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “We can definitely do that.”


	10. Loving Family (Age 13)

Rin felt something shaking his arm and he opened his eyes. Hana was standing there above him, a frown on her face. He rubbed his eyes and tried to sit up but finding too much resistance, Sousuke’s arms holding him down. They had fallen asleep on the couch after watching a movie together.

 

He pulled a heavy, but otherwise unresponsive arm off of him and got up off the couch. He was grateful it was a large couch, but even then the two of them had to squish together on their sides to be comfortable. Sousuke always had an arm tossed around him to help keep him up just in case he moved wrong and fell off.

 

“Welcome home,” Rin mumbled and Hana’s frown softened a bit. He rubbed his eyes again, willing the sleepiness away.

 

“I’m home,” she responded, before switching to English. “Dad, are you two happy together? You don’t hate each other do you?”

 

“What?” Rin asked, much more awake than before.

 

“Do you two fight a lot when I’m not around? Are you just faking it?” Hana continued with a teary tone to her voice, and her eyes started to glisten. She went to leave and Rin stretched out and grabbed her hand turning her around.

 

“Whoa! Hold up, hey,” Rin said grabbing her other hand and rubbing them with his thumbs. “Where’s this all coming from?”

 

Tears started spilling down her cheeks and Rin pulled her down into a hug, squeezing her tight. She wrapped her arms around him tight and cried. Sousuke finally stirred at the sound of Hana’s wailing when Rin asked her what’s wrong and he sprung up.

 

“What’s going on?” he asked, eyes wild and confused.

 

“I don’t know,” Rin whimpered, completely lost. “I don’t know what’s wrong. She just came home and asked if we fake being happy with each other and.”

 

“Rin,” Sousuke said, voice firm and Rin closed his mouth and let out a shaky breath. There was no good in getting freaked out himself. Hana’s crying started to slow after a minute, Sousuke rubbing her back and telling her everything was fine and that they wanted to know what was wrong. When her crying bubbled down to tiny hiccups and sniffles she pulled back and wiped her arm against her eyes.

 

“Now will you tell us what’s wrong?” he asked, looking at Rin and then back at Hana. She looked down at her hands and started twisting her shirt with them.

 

“Sarah’s parents are getting divorced,” she started. “They always looked happy together but they weren’t. And Sarah said that her parents would lie and they’d fight when they thought she couldn’t hear and,” she cried, her voice cracking and her breath coming out in fast bouts by the end.

 

“Calm down, breathe,” Rin said, rubbing her arm. “So that’s why you asked if we fight when you aren’t around?”

 

She nodded, and despite holding it down as best as she can she let out a sob and started to cry into her hands.

 

“She, she said that everyone’s like that! And, and that everyone’s parents get divorced,” she hiccupped, weeping harder as she thought about it. “And I asked and lots of kids have divorced parents and even Jay’s mom’s been divorced before and,” she cried, starting to hyperventilate as she kept forcing the words out.

 

“Hey,” Rin called softly, finally grasping what was going on. He took her chin gently in his hand and tilted her up to face him. “That’s them, not us. Even if everyone you know has divorced parents, or if everyone in in this area has been divorced, there are still tons of people who’ve haven’t. Don’t assume that we will just because it’s common here.”

 

“Even if there’s only a few, you shouldn’t just write us off,” Sousuke said with a small smile, tapping her cheek. “We aren’t just anybody, you know.”

 

“But,” Hana sniffled.

 

“No buts,” Rin interjected, “no ‘what ifs’ either. Sousuke and I do fight, but you’ve seen when we fought. And you know it’s never for long, and it’s never over something big.”

 

“Most of the time it’s just because I’m being stubborn and your dad’s trying to knock some sense into me,” Sousuke added. Hana let out a soft laugh between her sniffling.

 

“Or if your dad’s trying to stop me from pushing myself and doing more than I should,” Rin continued.

 

“But those aren’t things that are going to separate us,” Sousuke finished, grabbing her hand in his. “Love is work, but it shouldn’t be the painful kind. That’s probably the biggest thing I learned from your dad and your grandma.”

 

“That doesn’t mean it can’t be painful at times,” Rin admitted, holding his hand out for Sousuke to take, gazing at him and feeling a satisfaction in his bones. “But it shouldn’t be painful always. And even if there’s a moment when it really hurts, that’s when you speak up. You talk about it even if it’s hard.”

 

“Is it hard for you?” Hana asked looking at Rin and Sousuke cleared his throat, drawing there attention. He ruffled the back of his hair and gave a sheepish grin.

 

“It was hard for me, at first. But that’s when we were younger, long before we met you. I used to bottle things up a lot, because I was afraid of dragging him down. He had a dream and all I had was a feeling that I didn’t want to part with him.”

 

“It was hard for me too, when I didn’t know if he was being honest with me,” Rin confessed looking at her. “When we were first starting out, but we talked about it. We talked a lot.”

 

“Loves a lot of talking,” Sousuke chuckled, “even when you don’t want to.”

 

“Makoto and Haru don’t talk, they just look at each other,” Hana argued and Rin let out of frustrated huff, though there was a smile on his lips.

 

“They talk, but in their own way. And sometimes,” Rin whispered, as if it was a secret, “they get in really big scary fights when they don’t.”

 

“Scary fights?” Hana asked, eyes wide and worried.

 

“Scary because they’ve never fought often, so they don’t know how to make up afterwards. But they always figure it out, or ask for help from their friends when they do,” he explained.

 

“Are your fights scary?” She looked between them in fear and Sousuke shook his head.

 

“Not really, because when we do fight you feel it,” Sousuke said, putting his fist against her stomach, “right there. You know in your gut your wrong and you’re saying the wrong things, you’re just stubborn and in the moment. When you feel that, you know it’s your job to apologize.”

 

“It’s still a bit scary because even if you apologize, that doesn’t mean you’ll be forgiven. But, it is less scary when you know what the problem is, even if you're the one in the wrong. When you feel that feeling you apologize right away, you don’t ignore it.”

 

“When you’re too scared to apologize and you ignore that feeling is when problems happen,” Rin told her, a thoughtful frown on his lips. She put her hand over her stomach, and looked between the two of them.

 

“So you’re really happy together?” she asked and Rin and Sousuke looked up at each other.

 

“I guess,” they answered with twin shrugs. Rin was the first to burst out into laughter leaning in for the kiss Sousuke was begging for with his eyes. Hana covered her eyes with her hands and made a disgusted noise.

 

“Do you want us to stay together or not? Make up your mind,” Rin teased. “I married him, I’m allowed to kiss him.”

 

“You two are so weird,” Hana said wiggling out of their arms and onto the floor, crawling away.

 

“You know what else married people do,” Sousuke mused, grabbing a laughing Rin in his arms and dramatically kissing his neck. Rin giving him a playful shove as Hana got up and made a mad dash for the kitchen.

 

“You two are so gross!” She cried, covering her ears. “Forget I said anything at all!”


	11. The Tough Years (Age 14)

“Hey, aren’t you going to school?” Sousuke asked, sitting down on the side of Hana’s bed. Hana pushed her head further into her pillow. Seconds ticked by and Sousuke nudged her side, she didn’t respond. He tickled her sides and she squirmed, but still didn’t respond, head deep in her pillow.

 

“You’re going to be late,” Sousuke hummed, looking over at her clock.

 

“I don’t want to go,” she said, voice muffled by the cotton pillow. Sousuke stood up, slid his two hands under her and flipped her. She squeaked, but her pillow never left her face, clutched tightly in her hands.

 

“You have to go, so get up,” he ordered.

 

“Please don’t make me go,” she pleaded, fingers curling tighter into her pillow. Sousuke grabbed the pillow with one hand and wrenched it out of hers, her yelling to let it go. When he finally yanked it out of view he was surprised to see her wet cheeks and red eyes. She looked betrayed and she quickly turned in her bed, hiding her face from him.

 

“Why are you crying?” he asked dropping to his knees by her bed and reaching for her hand. She tucked it further under her face. “What’s wrong?”

 

“Please Dad,” she wept, “please don’t make me go.”

 

“Hey,” he whispered, hand changing to push her hair out of her face and off her neck. He rubbed circles in her back and waited. When the tension in her arms went slack he put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head to look up at him, snot in her nose and tears in her eyes.

 

“Why don’t you want to go to school?”

 

Hana looked down at her bed sheets, gaze unfocused and tears spilling quietly from her eyes. Sousuke sat down then, knees getting tired, and settling in to hear what she had to say.

 

“I hate it,” she answered, not elaborating any further.

 

“Why do you hate it?” He pressed, fingers combing back her hair. “What happened?”

 

“Nothing happened,” she said, tilting her head further into her bed, speaking to it. “I just hate it. I hate going to school, I hate doing homework, I hate projects, I just want to stay home. Every day is awful.”

 

Sousuke pursed his lips and sighed, having a feeling he knew what was going on. He had never experienced it himself, but his roommate back at his old high school did. Crushed under the weight of doing well, being exceptional, and unable to argue with authority.

 

He had noticed how quite she was during school events, her teachers had always put notes saying that she was a pleasure to have in class, even though she came home and complained every day about how they treated her. Her grades were up with the top of her class, but he couldn’t remember her being proud of them.

 

“You can’t stop going to school,” Sousuke admitted, a little ashamed at the disheartened acceptance in her eyes. “But,” he continued, “it’s okay to take a day off every now and then.”

 

“I can?” she asked sitting up.

 

“You can.”

 

“Even if I’m not sick?” she said, perking up visually. Sousuke shook his head.

 

“Even if you’re not sick,” he declared. “Whenever you want, but you have to use your days wisely, or else I won’t let it happen anymore.”

 

“I can really stay home when I want to?” Hana asked again. Sousuke held out his pinky and she wrapped hers around his, her smile glowing despite the disbelief in her eyes.

 

“Just remember what I said about choosing your days off wisely,” he said, finally standing up. She got up and caught him in a hug, squeezing him tight.

 

“Thank you,” she mumbled against his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

 

“You’re welcome. Now, what do you want for breakfast?” He asked turning them around and waddling them out the door. She looked up at him in surprise, digging her chin into his chest, a bright grin on her face.

 

“You’re making breakfast!?”

 

“I guess,” he sighed, before letting her go to walk down the stairs. “You should also probably text your dad to let him know that you’re staying home today.”

 

“Why?” she asked, carefully she descended the stairs behind him. He was walking down them at a leisure pace that was awkward for her legs.

 

“Because he’d want to know,” he hummed. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he turned around and held his arms out. She jumped into them with a smile, even if there were only three steps left. He swung her around a bit before waddling them the rest of the way into the kitchen.

 

“Will he be mad?”

 

“We won’t know until we tell him.”

 

“I’m going to tell him it’s all your idea,” she warned him and Sousuke laughed, dropping her at the kitchen table. She puffed out her cheeks as she got up onto the chair herself, not appreciating the sudden stumble she had once he let go.

 

“Sure, he’ll forgive me,” Sousuke said as he walked over to the cabinets, “since I’m so cute.”

 

“You? Cute?” Hana snorted. “Okay.”

 

“Just ask him,” he laughed, pulling out their pancake mix. “I’ll bet you he’ll tell you that I have the cutest smile.”

 

“Gross,” she snickered.

 

“And the cutest ass too,” he added and she started to make gagging noises.

 

“Ew! Dad stop, I have to eat after this.”

 

“What? I’m being serious,” he laughed. She made more gagging noises before pulling out her phone.

 

“I’m going to tell Dad you’re being nasty.”

 

“He won’t believe you, I’m an angel,” Sousuke deadpanned, looking at her straight in the eyes. They both broke down into laughter. Sousuke’s laugh came more from the sound of Hana’s laughter than his own joke.

 

“Dad you’re really dorky when you’re home,” Hana said, absently tracing figures into the kitchen table. Sousuke frowned and put the eggs and milk on the kitchen countertop.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“You don’t make these kind of jokes when we’re out. All of my friends think you’re really cool, it’s so weird,” she whined, stretching out on the table and dropping her head against her arm. She looked at him with skepticism in the arch of her eyebrow. “You don’t even act like this in front of Amber and Nurul.”

 

Sousuke didn’t say anything, but his cheeks started to burn and his frown wouldn’t leave. Everything was quite, only the clink of pots and pans as he pulled out what he needed could be heard. Hana sat up then and started to laugh, a slight disbelief in the tone.

 

“Are you embarrassed?” she gawked. “Oh my god you are!”

 

Sousuke didn’t face her, or show any acknowledgement he had heard her. He felt stupid, and an awful feeling he hadn’t felt in a while sat in the bottom of his stomach. It was that feeling he got when he first came to Australia, feeling like he was a big idiot making a fool of himself. Hana snickered and the sound of her fingers tapping away at the glass screen of her phone could be heard. When she had grabbed it he didn’t know, but it grated his ears.

 

“Hey, are you upset?” Hana asked after a few more minutes. “Dad?”

 

“I’m not upset,” he grumbled.

 

“Okay,” she whispered, sarcasm laced. Her phone vibrated and she looked back up at him. “Dad says you’re embarrassed and I should apologize.”

 

Sousuke dropped the bowl he was holding on the counter, it’s hard plastic making a dull noise. He turned to her, his face red and sporting the biggest pout. His eyebrows scrunched down in a misguided attempt to look threatening. He remembered back when she was so sweet and little, oh where did his little girl go?

 

“Do you want me to make you breakfast or not?”

 

“Yes please,” she mumbled, gaze darting down at her phone. Her phone buzzed again, twice. “Dad says to stop being a baby, I’m your daughter, and he’s coming home early tonight.”

 

Sousuke closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, counting to ten.

 

“What did I do to deserve this? I try to be nice and look what happens.”

 

“You married him, and you adopted me so I mean, it was all your choice in the end,” Hana laughed a little before calming down. She folded her arms on the kitchen table and dropped her head in them, voice muffled. “Thank you though, seriously.”

 

He looked over at Hana and let out a tiny smile.


	12. First Crush (Age 15)

“Come on, get off. We have to get dressed,” Rin groaned into his pillow. His protests were weak as Sousuke placed a trail of kisses across his neck and shoulders.

 

“Shh. I’m admiring my Olympian,” Sousuke mumbled as he kissed the colored rings permanently etched into Rin’s back. Rin turned his head to the side and let out a sigh, a smile left on his lips. It had been awhile since he had been so content, and being freshly showered with Sousuke in his lazy afterglow made his mind hazy.

 

“Sousuke,” Rin sighed again, “Hana is going to be home soon, come on.”

 

“Alright, alright,” Sousuke grumbled, lifting himself up onto his arms. Rin turned onto his back and Sousuke instantly dropped his support, swooping in for a kiss and trapping Rin on the bed again. “One more minute.”

 

Rin couldn’t stop his giggling, wrapping his arms around Sousuke and allowing him to be a little selfish. Sousuke peppered kisses along his face and after a quick peck to his lips he pulled back, propping himself up on his elbow. Rin gazed over all the angles and curves of his face, admiring their striking beauty. A calm, gentle feeling filled his heart as Sousuke brushed his hair out of his face.

 

“Do you love me?” Rin whispered, a smirk on his lips as he brought up a hand to Sousuke’s cheek. He just chuckled above him, and his eyes fluttered close as he leaned down for a kiss.

 

“I do,” he whispered against his lips.

 

Rin guided him to lie down next to him, bringing their foreheads together, brushing noses. Sousuke continued to comb through Rin’s damp tresses, large calloused fingers leaving tingling trails behind. He dug his own hand into Sousuke’s hair, gentling scratching the back of his neck. A soft sigh left Sousuke and Rin kissed the corner of his mouth.

 

“I love you too,” Rin hummed as he kissed his chin.

 

Rin worked his way down until he was resting his cheek rest against Sousuke’s shoulder. He pressed his nose against the hollow of Sousuke’s throat and inhaled, smelling the warm skin there. Everything so slow and sweet, a stark difference between their acts earlier, but he loved that. No matter what pace they took it was perfect for them, and he loved it.

 

Their moment was shattered by the sound of a car pulling into their drive. The music was blasting so loud the whole neighborhood could probably hear it. They both broke from their embrace to go see what was going on when the sound zoomed away just as fast as it came. They heard the front door slam shut and Sousuke jumped out of bed so fast his towel flew off as he went to lock their bedroom door.

 

“Well,” Rin sighed, throwing his arms out against the bed, “that was nice while it lasted.”

 

“You’re telling me,” Sousuke sulked as he walked over to their dresser to find clothes.

 

Rin rolled out of bed and followed suit, throwing on a fresh pair of underwear and his favorite pair of lazy-day clothes. Sousuke’s sweatpants were still his preferred form of casual wear, no matter the weather. He threw on one of the shirts Sousuke wasn’t using and walked back over to pick up their wet towels. The bed was likely damp, but he’d worry about that later.

 

When Sousuke finished putting on his t-shirt Rin opened the door and walked out and to the bathroom. He tossed the towels onto the rack on the back of the door to dry before heading downstairs. Hana was at the doorway sitting down on the bench. One shoe was off, but her hands were on her phone, tapping away.

 

“Welcome home,” Rin called as he walked into the kitchen.

 

“I’m back,” she answered, but the one to enter the kitchen after was Sousuke. Rin glanced at him and he jerked his thumb back out to where she was, a question in his eyes and Rin shrugged.

 

“Must be important,” he said. Sousuke slunk up to his side, slipping his arms around his waist and resting his head on Rin’s shoulder. Rin grabbed his water with his left hand, trying his best not to jostle Sousuke too much. His throat didn’t feel as dry as it was, but as soon as he drank the liquid he felt like he was watering desert soil.

 

“Dad,” Hana said, finally walking into the kitchen, eyes still glued to her phone’s screen.

 

“What?” They both asked in unison. She jumped, not noticing Sousuke had come downstairs, before mumbling “I’m home” again. Sousuke welcomed her home and she put her phone away. Rin and Sousuke moved to the kitchen table and Hana slid up onto her designated chair, folding her arms on the table.

 

“How do you know if you like someone?” she blurted out and Sousuke, who had been taking a sip of Rin’s water, started choking. Rin took the glass from him after his momentary shock and patted his back. Sousuke put a hand up and walked out of the room to finish choking somewhere else.

 

“Uh,” Rin mumbled as he took a seat, “that really depends I guess.”

 

Hana scowled at his answer. “I’m being serious!”

 

“So am I,” he said with a shrug. Sousuke walked back in then; still covering up some small coughing here and there as his body tried to force the water out of his lungs. He dragged his chair right up next to Rin’s and plopped down there, head landing on his shoulder, looking for comfort.

 

“Then how did you know?” she asked, stressing the question. Rin made a noise in the back of his throat and he crossed his arms as he thought about the question, gazing at Sousuke first and then humming.

 

“Well, I mean, I guess I just sort of wanted to hold hands with them and kiss them and stuff?” Rin questioned more than said.

 

“How about you, Dad? How did you know when you had a crush on someone?” Hana said turning to Sousuke and he just shrugged.

 

“I’m probably a bad example to go by,” he coughed, his body finally calming down.

 

“Why?” Hana asked, baffled at his answer.

 

“Because I only liked this one here,” he answered, pointing at Rin. Rin slapped the finger down with a scowl. “And even then, my feelings were really vague. It wasn’t like I knew because I wanted to kiss him or something. I just wanted to be by his side and be able to do things for him.”

 

“You kind of liked that one girl though,” Rin added and Sousuke shrugged, lips pulling down on one side.

 

“Because she reminded me of you,” he mumbled.

 

“Anyways,” Rin said turning back to Hana, “everyone likes people differently. So really, neither of us can really be good markers for you. It’s something you figure out on your own through exploring how you feel and stuff.”

 

Hana dropped her head into her arms and groaned about how unhelpful they were. She sighed and lifted her head up to look at them. Sousuke had his hand wrapped around his arm, holding it close in that dejected manner of his, and Rin was looking at her with a pathetic frown on his lips.

 

“If you liked so many people, how did you know Dad was the one?” She asked, sliding her upper body to the side so she could look at them while resting against the pillow she made with her arms. Rin sputtered and Sousuke smirked at him, causing him to smack him in the arm.

 

“I did not like ‘so many people’ I just have had a few more crushes than him,” Rin grumbled, crossing his arms defensively. “And in the first place, lots of people have multiple crushes in their lives.”

 

“So who was your first one?” she pressed on, trying to squeeze as much information out of him as possible. Rin stopped his grumbling at that and rubbed the back of his neck with a thoughtful frown. He looked at Sousuke and flicked his forehead.

 

“What was that for?” Sousuke whined, rubbing the red spot forming on his head.

 

“Nothing,” he sighed before turning back to Hana. “Well, he was the first, but I didn’t know that when I was young. He was the first. And there was also Haru and, well sort of Makoto anyways I don’t know. They were all before I knew that the way I felt was kind of, well, different.”

 

Rin shrugged, rubbing a burning hole into the back of his neck as he went on, his embarrassment running high. Hana sat up in surprise, jaw hanging loose. She was about to say something but she closed her mouth at the last second. Rin caught Sousuke doing something out of the corner of his eye, but he decided to ignore it.

 

“It wasn’t until middle school that I, uh, noticed that I wasn’t really feeling purely friend feelings for them. The first crush I knew I was having was with this upperclassman while I was here in Australia for the first time. After figuring it out I kind of just knew that with them it was the same. I didn’t have any intentions or thoughts about kissing them or anything because we were so young, so it was harder to understand,” Rin finished. His eyes darted to the side and he shrugged again. He rubbed the back of his neck before dropping his hand back onto his lap, looking at Hana again.

 

“Oh,” Hana hummed, resting her head back into her arms. “How did you feel when you met Dad again?”

 

“Confused,” Rin laughed, “because I knew I had liked him before, but he was still my best friend. And of course I was worried. Didn’t help that he came back to me drop dead gorgeous,” he teased, elbowing Sousuke. Sousuke smirked, unabashed by the praise.

 

“Okay, ew,” she grumbled. “Keep those kinds of things to yourselves please.”

 

“You’re the one who asked,” Rin hummed, mood lifting. “So what brought this on anyways? And who brought you home? That music was way too loud.”

 

“I agree,” Sousuke muttered, rubbing his ears as if he could still hear it.

 

“Sarah’s cousin,” she said with a shrug. “And because this guy Ryan, you know him right? Joey’s friend? I think I told you about him. Anyways he’s really sweet and stuff and I have fun with him, but he kissed me and asked me out and I don’t really get why.”

 

“Well,” Sousuke said, covering Rin’s face with his hand as soon as he saw the irritation in his eyes and objection on his lips. “Don’t date him if you only see him as a friend, that’ll only hurt the both of you. But if you do like him, just take things slow anyways. If you really like each other time shouldn’t matter.”

 

Hana looked up as she thought it over before hopping out of her chair.

 

“Okay, thanks Dad, and Dad,” she laughed as she ran up to them and gave them each a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve got a test to study for so call me when dinner's ready? And make it good please?”

 

Sousuke’s hand dropped from Rin’s face and the fury was subsided, but his mouth was pulled into a stubborn pout.

 

“Whatever you want,” Sousuke answered with a grin.

 

“Can we eat that thing you and Grandma made for us last time? That really good curry?”

 

“Sure,” he laughed and she smiled before leaving them behind. Rin was dangerously quiet and Sousuke turned in his seat to look at him. “You’re surprisingly unsympathetic about this. Aren’t you all about love and romance?”

 

“Oh, shut up Sousuke. He forced a kiss on her.” Rin was seething as he got out of his seat. “That’s not love, that’s not even respect.”

 

“Right, right,” Sousuke said as he got up, “but she didn’t sound upset about it so it couldn’t have been that bad. Maybe he gave her enough time to back off.”

 

“Then she would have!” Rin exclaimed, throwing his hands up in their air before realizing how he sounded and crossed his arms tight. “Whatever, just start making dinner.”

 

“Are you going to help?” Sousuke asked hand reaching out to tuck a piece of Rin’s hair behind his ear. Rin’s frown lessened and he shrugged.

 

“Yeah, fine.”


	13. Family Ties (Age 16)

“But your cousin really wants to get to know you, and we’re family,” the woman pleaded. Rin watched Hana as she listened to the phone. She had it on speaker so that he could hear it. Sousuke was at work for the day, but Rin was texting him updates so he could see it when he was on break next.

 

“I’m really sorry, but I don’t want to meet with you. I already have my family,” she said, voice firm, eyes fixed on the ground. Her eyebrows were scrunched up together so tight Rin feared she’d give herself a migraine.

 

Her aunt on her father’s side had reached out and gotten their contact information. Keeping the lines of communication between the biological family and the child open was a part of the adoption process. Unless legal actions had been taken, it was important to allow the child access to their birth family and history. Still, Hana had long since stated that she felt no need to search them out.

 

“Hannah, it wasn’t our choice this happened to you,” the woman on the other line said. Hana’s hand balled up into a fist and she looked up at Rin with pure anger in her eyes. Her mouth was tight, and she stood up. “We don’t want to just abandon you like your mother’s sister did. You’re our family too.”

 

“Excuse me,” Hana started, voice as tight as her grip on her phone, “but you’re pronouncing my name wrong. It’s not Hannah, it’s Hana. You are not my family, I’ve never met you. And if I was important to you, you would have made contact before, so please stop acting like you’re concerned about me.”

 

The line went quite for a while and then there was a barely audible sigh. Hana crossed her arms and looked at Rin’s phone which was recording the conversation. This was, after all, the second time this woman has called to harass Hana. The first time Hana was on her own and didn’t have anyone to support her as she stood up for herself. When Sousuke and Rin had come home from work she told them in tears what had happened and they were right by her side assuring her they'd be there next time.

 

“Well, it’s clear you’re upset right now so I won’t keep you much longer. But Hannah, don’t you want to know your family history? Where you come from? Don’t you want to know about your real parents?”

 

“These are my real parents!” Hana shrieked, losing her control. Rin jumped up and grabbed her hand, easing her fingers out of their fist for fear of her hurting herself.

 

“I know what I want to know about where I come from! I know the family history I want to know! My mom and dad were my parents while they were alive, and I did love them, but I can barely remember them and I don’t really care to. If I can’t remember them with my own memories, than that’s it! I don’t want to know other people’s memories of them. My memories are of my family,” she said, slowing down in her rant. She intertwined her fingers with Rin’s and gave them a squeeze.

 

“Rin and Sousuke, they are my real parents too. They’re the ones who’ve been by my side. I don’t need people who claim to be family just because of blood, especially not when they’re so rude as to ignore me when I tell them no! I’m very sorry if you think you’re missing out, but the thing is, I’m not. Please don’t call me again, goodbye.”

 

Hana brought her thumb down on the red button and tossed her phone at the couch where it bounced off onto the rug. Hot tears were streaming down her face and she turned into Rin’s arms and hugged onto him tight. He stopped the recording, and slipped his phone into his pocket before wrapping his arms around her.

 

“You handled it well,” Rin sighed, kissing her cheek. She was already as tall as him, digging her face into his neck. He thought back to when she was smaller, hugging his stomach with all her might. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I wanted to say something, but,” he trailed off.

 

There wasn’t much you could say to someone like that when you were in his place.

 

“I just don’t,” she hiccupped, “understand how they don’t get how mean they sound? What do you mean my real parents? You guys are my real parents!”

 

Rin rubbed her back and started to sway them, rocking her back and forth as he sometimes would do. Even though she was growing so big, she was still so small. He didn’t know how to comfort her other than to tell her it would be alright.

 

“I’ll talk to whoever I have to, I just,” she sniffled, “never want to have to talk to them again.”

 

“Alright,” Rin said, “we’ll call and ask how to fix that. We’ll figure it out, don’t worry.”

 

“It’s just so frustrating!” she cried and Rin’s heart broke more and more the longer it went on.

 

They stood in silence for a while, Rin just squeezing her and Hana just squeezing him back, reassurance that she was okay. After a while Hana asked to sit down and they stayed curled up together on the couch. Hana didn’t bother pick up her phone to check for damage, and she just threw off her prosthetic carelessly, annoyed when it wouldn’t sit the way she wanted it too.

 

Rin let her be angry, let her throw things. He couldn’t imagine what she was feeling, and he knew it was better to let it out, even if it meant breaking important things. She was hurting inside, and if it’d release some of that pain, he’d let her do whatever it would take.

 

Sousuke came home with some of her favorite treats, and they all sat on the couch together as she recounted the earlier events. Rin filled in the spots she was having trouble speaking about without crying, and Sousuke gave her a big hug when they were done.

 

They stayed up all night watching her favorite movies after that, and none of them had plans to go to work or school the next day.


	14. Abroad (Age 17)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another double update!! I know that this one isn’t actually Completely happy but I think it’s a better note to end on lol

“Can you hear me?” The voice coming from the speakers said. It was clear enough to understand, though the screen in front of them was still black.

 

“Yeah, but we can’t see you,” Rin answered, a grin on his face. Hana clicked her tongue and some more noises from the other side came through before the black screen sprung to life. A slightly pixelated, but otherwise good picture showed up on their computer screen. Hana looked up at her laptop and smiled at them.

 

“Hey!” she said, waving her hand. Sousuke’s grip on his hand tensed a little, and Rin laughed. He was the most worried out of the three of them.

 

“Hey,” Rin greeted, “how was meeting your aunt? Gou said she found you fine, but how was it on your end.”

 

“It was okay,” she hummed, looking up to the side at something behind the door. “No, I’m fine! I got it to work.”

 

Another person came into view, a bright smile on her face. Her hair was wrapped up in a loose bun and she looked tired. She waved at the two of them.

 

“I got her just fine onii-chan,” Gou insisted, “you worry too much.”

 

“I worry just the right amount,” Rin retorted, crossing his arms. The smile on his face gave him away and Gou laughed before patting Hana’s back and telling her that dinner was ready when she was. She said goodbye before disappearing again out of the camera’s view.

 

“Auntie Gou is really tired, they were running super late on a submission date or something,” Hana hummed with a shrug. “It’s really nice here, but I think she wants to move back home soon. We ran into a few of her friends, or coworkers I’m not sure, on the way here and they kept making dumb comments. Like about how she needs to get married soon or she'll miss her chance and stuff.”

 

“What?” Rin grimaced at the thought. Gou was probably very tired of Tokyo if that was all she was hearing, but then again, she was well on her way to forty. Hana sat up in her chair than, a hot look in her eyes.

 

“Yeah! And this one guy was saying stupid stuff like ‘when are you going to have a kid of your own?’ It was so annoying! She just shut him down, but that doesn’t change how frustrating it was. I don’t know how to help though. She said she might get married to her roommate just so they don’t have to deal with it. They’ve been talking about it recently,” she hummed, swirling in her chair. She twirled her long brown hair with her finger.

 

“With Takashi?” Rin snorted, but Sousuke hummed beside him and he looked over at the other. He hadn’t said a word since they started their video chat.

 

“He’s really nice!” Hana said as she stopped spinning. “And he’s adorable, so I think it’d work. His parents have been bugging him to marry someone forever now apparently. They even tell him to marry Gou even though she’s older!”

 

“Yeah they’ve always been like that,” Rin admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well they’ve been friends for what, eight years now? I’d be surprised if they didn’t already believe that they were dating. It must be hard on Takashi.”

 

“I don’t know since he seems to let everyone at work think that,” Hana observed, “maybe it is? Well it’s got to be a little, with everyone forcing that on you all of the time.”

 

“They’ll figure it out. Either way the people who should know do know. That’s all that matters,” Sousuke chimed in, finally breaking his silence. Hana shrugged and let her head drop onto the back of the chair.

 

“It’s kind of weird knowing that I won’t be seeing you guys in a while,” she whispered. “Like I know it’s going to be fun, and I’m with Aunt Gou, but it’s still weird.”

 

“We’ll book a ticket whenever you need us too,” Rin promised. “But I think you’ll have a great time there. Besides, now there’s video calling, and texting, and emailing, you can talk to us whenever you want.”

 

“Yeah, that’s true. It was hard for you two wasn’t it,” Hana reasoned.

 

“Not the second time,” Rin assured, knocking shoulders with Sousuke. He smiled at him but frowned when he saw the thoughtful look in his eyes.

 

“Well I should go eat dinner,” she yawned, “and then go to bed. They’re going to take me out tomorrow and show me things, like how to use the train system and stuff. I’ll talk to you in the morning?”

 

“We’ll be here,” he said, tone confident. “Love you, have fun.”

 

“I will! Love you too!” Hana said with a wave, she was about to turn it off when her hand paused. “Love you too Dad, don’t be too sad okay?”

 

“I’m fine,” Sousuke said, covering his eyes. “Have fun.”

 

“I said I love you,” she teased.

 

“I love you too,” he mumbled and she smiled and the screen went black again.

 

“Are you okay?” Rin asked finally turning in his seat to see Sousuke. He was covering his eyes with his hand, but the slow streams of tears rolling down his cheeks were the only answer needed. Rin snuck an arm around his shoulders and leaned up and kissed his cheek.

 

“Fine,” he muttered, and Rin kissed his cheek again.

 

“You know, she’ll be fine. She knows way more Japanese than I knew English, and she’s older too. Plus Gou is there, I don’t think she’s going to have any trouble,” Rin teased. Sousuke shrugged him off with an irritated huff.

 

“I know that,” he spat, replacing his hand with two arms, leaning back into the computer chair. Rin tugged at his arms, trying to get them to come down.

 

“Then what’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing is,” he insisted and Rin sat back in his seat. He thought about what could be wrong. He knew that Sousuke had a great deal of confidence that Hana would be okay, even though they both felt nervous at times. It wasn’t like they both weren’t missing her and feeling lonely, too.

 

“She’ll be back,” he said, heart aching when he finally came to a conclusion that made sense. When Sousuke opened his mouth to answer he put his hand over it. Sousuke let down his hand to glare at the other, softened by the wet trails coming out of his eyes and Rin kissed his cheek again.

 

“I came back, didn’t I? I didn’t forget about you.”

 

Sousuke’s eyes were rimmed in white, before they fluttered closed as he let out a soft chuckle and Rin knew he got it right. Sousuke wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close, hiding in the crook of his neck. He gave Rin’s skin a soft kiss, and his let out a deep breath, body releasing all of its tension.

 

“That’s true.”


	15. Graduation (Age 18)

“I can’t believe she’s already finished with high school,” Rin sighed. He flipped another page of one of the family albums he was going through. Sousuke hummed at his side, stilling Rin’s hand whenever he wanted to stay on a page for a moment longer. After Hana had finished all of her exams they had gotten particularly sentimental about it, and it was killing her.

 

“You two are so embarrassing!” Hana groaned, throwing herself against the couch. “It’s not even that big of a deal!”

 

“I think it is,” Rin objected, flipping to another page that was covered in photos of them at the swimming pool.

 

Hana was only ten then but she had already become a great swimmer, despite everything. They had even encouraged her to join a team, though she said that she didn’t want to swim competitively. Rin smiled at the disgruntled face Sousuke had in the picture, a young Hana splashing him. Below that was a wonderful picture of the two of them giving the camera the thumbs up while underwater.

 

Rin remembered the very moment he had bought their first water-safe camera. Hana had not stopped bugging them until they went to the pool and tested it out. It wasn’t long until they started taking pictures at the pool all of the time, and in the ocean instead of just on the beach.

 

“Well it’s not,” she huffed as she turned around to look at them. “I don’t know why you have to pull out those dumb pictures every chance you get, it’s ridiculous. We’ve seen them like a hundred times already.”

 

“That’s not very many times,” Sousuke mumbled, flipping the page himself. He kissed Rin’s cheek when he saw the picture of Rin and Hana curled up in their bed, fast asleep, drool escaping their mouths. It was one of his personal favorites.

 

“Soon she’s going to leave us for college,” Rin sighed, a thoughtful frown on his face. “What are we going to do without her?”

 

“Be gross without hindrance,” Hana snorted. “And stop talking like I’m not here!”

 

Sousuke started to laugh and his gaze left the album to look at Hana, a twinkle in his eyes. He grabbed Rin’s cheek and pulled the side of his forehead into his lips. Rin ignored them, still focused on the pictures in his lap. He was long since used to their teasing.

 

“Urgh,” Hana groaned exaggeratedly letting her head drop onto the back of the couch. “You two are so gross.”

 

“You’ll be just as gross as us when you’re married,” Rin retorted, glancing at her before leaning further into Sousuke’s side. Sousuke wrapped his arms around Rin and let his head lull to the side to rub against his.

 

“If,” Hana said exasperatedly. “Maybe I’ll be like Auntie Gou and never get married.”

 

“Well, that is a possibility,” Rin thought before turning into Sousuke’s face to look at him. He just gave him a sheepish grin back and Rin pecked his nose.

 

“Gross,” Hana groaned.

 

“Gross, gross, that’s the only word she knows. You’d think she was the one with English as a second language,” Rin muttered and Sousuke laughed into his hand.

 

“Even if I did get a boyfriend, I’d never be as gross as you two,” she continued, ignoring him. She let her back fall onto the couch and kicking up her one leg onto it. She pillowed her arms under her head and looked upside down at the two of them on the loveseat. “We’d be more like Haru-chan and Mako-chan.”

 

“They’re way more gross than us,” Sousuke grumbled and Rin tried hard not to agree, a grin slipping through.

 

“At least they don’t go kissing each other all of the time,” Hana retorted with a shrug. She let her head sit in its natural position again, staring at the ceiling.

 

“We’re married!” Rin countered, his favorite and well used argument. “Besides, it’s not like I’m tonguing him right here. I don’t even kiss him that much when you’re around so what are you complaining about? And Haru and Makoto are way grosser, they’re awful. It’s like watching your parents.”

 

“Okay first, ew. Never say tonguing again,” Hana said, a mortified look on her face. “How do you even know that word? And second, what do you think you two are?”

 

“She has a point,” Sousuke intoned and Rin shrugged. He closed the album and stood up, reaching out for Sousuke’s hand and Sousuke grabbed it following him.

 

“Well, that’s true,” Rin reasoned, a smirk on his face. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop.”

 

“I can’t wait to move out,” Hana grumbled into her arms and the two of them started to laugh at her expense.

 

“Want to go out for dinner? A sort of celebration for getting through high school?” Rin finally asked and Hana sat up in surprise.

 

“Where are we going to go?”

 

“Anywhere you want, even if it’s fancy. But if it’s fancy, we all have to get dressed,” he hummed, looking over at Sousuke who was there in an old faded t-shirt and highwater shorts. Even his hair was a mess since he kept rubbing his head against Rin’s. He wouldn’t be surprised if he had a bunch of new knots in his hair because of it.

 

“Let’s dress up! I want to wear that new dress Grandma and Aunt Gou got me!” Hana said as she got up and ran up the stairs. Rin and Sousuke looked at each other and Rin tried to smooth down Sousuke’s hair, a chuckle on his lips.

 

“Maybe we should take a shower.”

 

“I’ll just stick my head in the sink, if we take too long she’ll throw a fit,” Sousuke sighed, heading upstairs. Rin grimaced at the truth of it.

 

“Do you even have any nice clothes?” Rin mumbled as he trailed behind him. Everything Sousuke liked to wear was so plain, he barely had any good clothes that weren’t straight up suits anymore. Everything even remotely fashionable was either what Rin bought, or jackets.

 

“I don’t know, did you buy me any?” Sousuke teased and Rin rolled his eyes, shoving him into the bathroom, dead set on fixing their hair.

 

“Come on, you’re right. We should hurry up or else Hana won’t want to go anymore,” he sighed, looking in the mirror and seeing that his hair was a frizzy mess on the one side.

 

“She gets that from you,” Sousuke said, turning on the sink and sticking his head right under it. Rin ran his hands through Sousuke’s hair, helping lead him under the spray. It was quite a bend for his back so Rin made quick work of wetting it all.

 

“Yeah, yeah.”


	16. Starting College (Age 19)

“Alright, you can go now,” Hana grumbled through gritted teeth, a fake smile in place. They had just finished helping her move into her new dorm room and they were both a little more than just reluctant to leave. But they weren’t the only ones, there were plenty of others who didn’t want to leave their babies there.

 

“Aren’t you going to miss us at all?” Rin sighed dramatically, draping his arms around her and pulling her down in to a hug. She grumbled against his shoulder, back bent awkwardly as she was already much taller than him.

 

“I will, I will, but I can’t miss you guys if you don’t leave!” she complained, trying to weasel her way out of the hug.

 

“Are you sure you have everything?” Sousuke asked, looking over her room once more.

 

Her roommate had yet to show up making a stark difference between the left and right side of the room. They had arrived early enough, and Hana was excited to let Rin help her organize and decorate her knew room. Sousuke sat back for most of it after they had all taken up all of her things, claiming he had no sense for those kind of things.

 

“I’m sure,” she whined and Rin let her go, only to pull her into a proper hug. She sighed and wrapped her arms around him. “Dad, don’t cry.”

 

“I’m not crying,” Rin grumbled though he hid his face.

 

“Excuse me?” A meek voice came from the doorway. All of their heads turned to see a small girl with inky black hair and glasses standing at the door. Rin wiped at his eyes before stepping back from Hana, allowing her to introduce herself.

 

“Hi! You’re Lorelai right?” Hana said, switching over to English. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person!”

 

“It’s nice to meet you too Hana. Ah, did I pronounce that right?” she asked stepping further into the bedroom. Hana grinned and stepped back so she could put down her purse on her designated desk.

 

“Yup! Lorelai,” Hana said turning to Rin and Sousuke, “these are my dads, Rin Matsuoka and Sousuke Matsuoka.”

 

“It’s nice to meet you! And you can call me Lorel,” Lorelai said smiling, she tucked back some of her hair behind her ears, a rosy hue on her cheeks. Rin’s eyebrow rose and he looked at Sousuke, whose gaze was boring into the stuffed animals on Hana’s bed. Gifts from them over the years, all sea animals except for one piece of bread with a smile face on it.

 

“It’s nice to meet you Lorelai,” Rin said putting on his trademark grin. “Please take care of my daughter.”

 

Lorelai looked confused but Hana waved it off and whispered that it was a cultural thing. Hana then quickly asked if she needed any help bringing up her things and Lorelai declined, saying that her brothers would be helping her. Sousuke said little during the brief exchange, and Rin wondered if it wasn’t because he was a little embarrassed.

 

The way his gaze would drift away from them and how his hands were stuffed in his pockets were tall-tale signs. Still, Rin wasn’t exactly sure why he’d feel embarrassed. Maybe since it had been so long since he had talked to anyone he didn’t know outside of work.

 

Hana walked them back out of the dorms when she finished talking to Lorelai. It was a quite walk and they all stopped once they got outside. They stood on the side of the sidewalk, each waiting to say a goodbye none of them felt like saying.

 

“It’s not like I’ll be gone forever,” Hana mumbled, though her eyes were glazed over just a bit.

 

Rin tried a smile, though it wobbled under his own mix of emotions, pride and loneliness standing at the forefront. When he saw Sousuke wipe at his eyes before his hands curled into a fist, he thought that maybe he wasn’t embarrassed before. Maybe he was already thinking of how this moment was going to have to happen.

 

“It’ll be fine,” Rin reassured, reaching out for her hand. He intertwined their fingers and marveled at how long they had gotten. He could remember when her whole hand could fit inside his. She had already grown so much.

 

“And I’ll be visiting a lot anyways,” she continued, eyes fixed on Sousuke. “So there’s no reason to really be sad.”

 

“There isn’t because you’re going to have a great time here,” Rin declared. His eyes also flitted back to Sousuke who had his own determinedly pointed at the ground.

 

“Dad, don’t cry,” Hana whispered, but this time her words were not meant for Rin.

 

Sousuke looked up at them and sighed, wiping at his eyes again. Getting rid of tears that were barely there, but those were big enough to let them know how upset he really was. He walked into their waiting arms as they gestured for him to come in for a group hug. Hana wrapped her arms around them both and squeezed. Sousuke’s arms were wrapped around them loosely, but tightened up when Hana and Rin pulled them all together as tight as they could.

 

“I’ll be fine, I’ve already gone to Tokyo without you before,” she said and Rin grinned, lifting up a hand to ruffle her hair.

 

“That was for a semester, that’s not that long.”

 

“But I’ll be visiting so much this won’t seem that long either,” Hana said with a smile and she kissed their cheeks. She, out of all of them, was the strongest.

 

They were all quite for a few moments before Rin’s arms loosened and their group broke up. Rin was the first to hug Hana, a tight squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. Sousuke was the second, and she squeezed him tight until he squeezed back and kissed her forehead.

 

“Love you guys,” she said and Rin mumbled a love you through his tears. Sousuke just turned his head away and whispered his own, trying to shield the fact that his eyes were wet pools. She gave them each a quick hug again and another kiss goodbye before running back to the dorm, catching a glimpse of her roommate heading up.

 

“Well,” Rin said, hitting Sousuke’s side with his elbow. “Time to go.”

 

Sousuke nodded and they walked back to the parking lot in silence. They stood outside the car after Rin had started it up and cranked on the AC, waiting for it to at least become bearable. Sousuke’s eyes were fixed on the ground again before he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Rin smiled at him and Sousuke’s frown loosened.

 

“I shouldn’t have agreed to be a parent,” Sousuke said as he slid into the car. Rin followed suit and shut his door, strapping himself into the driver seat.

 

“Why’s that?” Rin asked, though he thought he knew the answer.

 

Sousuke buckled himself in and looked out the passenger seat window. His hands sat loosely in his lap and Rin grabbed one, rubbing the back with his thumb. Sousuke glanced at him and offered a small smile.

 

“I forgot they grow up.”


	17. Love and Friendship (Age 20)

“How do you remember which one is which?” the short boy asked, sitting at Hana’s side. Sousuke watched Rin’s impatient glances at Hana as he tried to listen to the three on the couch.

 

They had heard that she would be bringing some friends from her college to visit some time ago. They were coming to stay for the first few weeks of summer break, but when they were informed this they didn’t even hear a whisper about a boyfriend. And she was very clear during introductions that he was not just a friend, but a boyfriend, that is to say in the romantic meaning of the word.

 

“Huh? What do you mean?” Hana asked turning to him, the girl sitting on her other side leaned forward to gaze down at the boy.

 

“Are you talking about how she calls them both dad?”

 

“Yeah,” he mumbled, flattening his hands against his jeans. The boy, Dylan if he had heard right, was a nervous mess of a kid. He was awkward and gangly though short. In all honesty he wasn’t sure why she had picked him as a boyfriend, but it’s not a parent’s place to judge. Not really anyways.

 

He liked Mia, the girl she brought home, who was, according to Hana, her best friend. She was short, but bubbly, and not at all shy. Most noticeably she introduced herself without Hana prompting her, unlike Hana's boyfriend.

 

Rin was a ball of energy ready to burst, and Sousuke hoped it wouldn’t be a violent one. If Sousuke knew anything about Rin, it was that he was more disturbed by the fact that Hana had been dating this boy for three months now and had not said a word. It was less the dating itself and more the secrecy behind it.

 

Sousuke assumed that Hana had just forgotten to tell them, since they hadn’t had much contact from her because of finals and such. Still, she should have thrown in even a quick text to sedate Rin. Everything Rin cared about involved being open and communicating.

 

“Well I mean, it’s just like, when you look at someone you’re talking to them right? It’s easy when you’re in the conversation yourself. It’s when you’re outside the conversation that it becomes a problem I guess. The only time they get confused is when I’m in the other room or something,” Hana explained with a shrug.

 

“Well I’m going to go start dinner now,” Rin said suddenly standing up. Sousuke looked up at him before following suit. He glanced at Hana to see her shocked eyes and they left leaving behind an awkward atmosphere. Sousuke heard them whispering to Hana as they disappeared into the kitchen.

 

“You okay?” Sousuke asked as he turned to lean against the kitchen counter. Rin had went straight for the fridge, staring aimlessly into it.

 

“Why didn’t she tell us,” Rin hissed, slipping into Japanese on purpose or accident, Sousuke couldn’t tell. He closed the fridge again, pulling nothing out before he stormed over to the cabinets. He grabbed box after box out, looking at them before setting them down on the table. Sousuke curled around him and stilled his hands, grabbing them and helping Rin’s occupied hand set down the box it had.

 

Rin slouched against him and sighed, and Sousuke wrapped their arms around Rin, kissing his shoulder.

 

“Relax,” Sousuke hummed. “Is it really that big of a deal? Maybe she was scared.”

 

“Why would she be scared?” Rin questioned, voice picking up as he looked back at Sousuke and Sousuke kissed his cheek as soon as he did.

 

“Because she’s young, and in her first relationship. Who knows. It’s fine, Rin,” he whispered.

 

“I don’t think it’s fine,” Rin grumbled looking down at their arms. “Stop that.”

 

“Stop what?” Sousuke said, swaying them back and forth.

 

“Trying to stop me from being upset,” Rin grumbled, though a smile cracked through. Sousuke pulled back and turned Rin around, pulling him into his arms and rocking them back and forth. “Stop it jerk!”

 

“Rin,” Sousuke called in a soft voice and Rin wrapped his arms around the other, giving in.

 

“I’m still mad you know,” Rin grumbled, though he wasn’t as tense as he let his head fall against Sousuke’s shoulder.

 

“That’s fine, but don’t take it out on those kids. You can talk to Hana about it later,” Sousuke hummed, as he dragged Rin into a waddling dance. Shifting their weight back and forth as he turned them around, he glanced at the kitchen door and saw Hana standing there. He had thought he heard her approach, but Rin had not.

 

Hana frowned but didn’t say anything and Sousuke nodded back at the door, silently telling her to leave. At least now she knew why Rin was acting this way. Sousuke grinned to himself that it was the same as always, just like when she was little. Hana would do something to upset Rin and Sousuke would calm him down to give her a chance to cook up a good apology.

 

“Let’s make dinner,” Rin mumbled against his shoulder. “You’re going to put me to sleep.”

 

“It’d be better if you fell asleep, but if you want to cook I’ll help,” Sousuke yawned. Rin yawned and pulled back, slapping his arm.

 

“See!”

 

“It’s because you said you were tired,” Sousuke shrugged before pulling him in for a kiss. It was soft and sweet, and Rin left it with a smile on his face, his mood rapidly improving.

 

“What should we eat for dinner?” Rin wondered aloud as he left Sousuke’s arms and back to open up the cupboards. This time his eyes were focused and he wasn’t just grabbing whatever came into view. Sousuke held back another yawn before sliding up next to him, looking at what they had.

 

They needed to go shopping soon; everything that was left was things they didn’t care to make that much, like pasta. Hana was the only one in the house who had liked pasta enough to eat it regularly, but Rin never got out of the habit of buying it when it was his turn to go out.

 

“Pasta it is,” Rin grumbled after pulling out the third box of the same brand of ziti. Sousuke just chuckled as he put the rest away, hands and arms brushing against Rin as he did so. Rin rolled his eyes at him before leaving to get the big pot.

 

“Should I take the boyfriend to buy something to go with that pasta,” Sousuke joked after he finished checking for anything they could add to it.

 

“You should,” Rin grinned, a little mischievous if Sousuke was being honest, “and her friend too.”

 

“What, do you want to scare them this early?” Sousuke snorted and Rin just hummed a marry tune as Sousuke made for the living room.

 

It’s not like he could go against anything Rin said anyways.


	18. Marriage (Age 28)

Rin’s tongue was struck still at the news. He couldn’t even feel Sousuke next to him, he was so shocked. Hana was twisting the ring around her finger nervously, a habit he knew she picked up from him. He knew this day might come, that it was one of the endless possibilities, but still he had not been prepared for it.

 

“So you and Jayden have deiced then,” Rin said, voice sounding foreign in his own ears. She nodded, a smile on her face, but her eyes were down cast.

 

“I know we’ve only been dating for a few years, but I’ve known him since I started working at that school and,” she explained, voice shaky.

 

A few years was a mild understatement, two years was more accurate. Sousuke sat up beside him and Rin looked over to him. He couldn’t see what expression he had from where he was sitting. At first he had been stock still and sitting straight up, but after letting the idea sink in, he sunk into the couch.

 

“You don’t need to explain it to us,” he heard Sousuke say, voice soothing and warm. “As long as this is what you both want, there’s no way we would object. You didn’t have to be so worried about telling us.”

 

Hana’s smile was bigger then, and it finally reached her eyes. She pushed back her short bobbed cut. Rin supposed Sousuke was right, even if the news shocked him. She had met Jayden when she had first started working as a Japanese teacher at her school. He’s into the arts or something, Rin never really bothered to asked specifics.

 

He liked Jayden though, he did, but they lived so far away and it was hard to meet him. He knew they were happy together, and they had long since been friends, but it was still nerve wracking. Nerve wracking in a way he didn’t really understand, but he’d let be anyways.

 

“He’s right, there’s no way we would stop you,” Rin finally said, a crooked smile on his face. “It’s just surprising. You’ve grown so quick.”

 

“All old people say that,” Hana teased, but she let out a breath and put her face in her hands. “I don’t know why I doubted you, I really didn’t mean to.”

 

“It’s okay,” Sousuke said and he got up and walked around to sit next to Hana, leaning on his arms. Hana fell into him and dropped her hands. Her eyebrows were upturned and so were her lips as they sat in silence.

 

“I wanted to know,” she began, “if you two would walk me down the aisle. Both of you.”

 

Rin’s grin cracked wide open and he choked out a laugh, his voice breaking. He rubbed at his eyes, determined not to let any tears fall. When he stood up his legs were shaking and walked over to sit next to Hana on her other side, all of them squished in the love seat. He grabbed her hand and held it between his, staring down at it and wondering how he had gotten this far.

 

It was both amazing, and terrifying. Time moved too fast.

 

“Of course we will.”


	19. Babies Born (Age 30)

 

“Stop that,” Sousuke said, staring at Rin who was making a hole in the floor. He had been pacing for about ten minutes now and Sousuke’s already frazzled nerves were just getting worse watching him. His neck and shoulders ached with how tense he was, sitting in the waiting chair. The room was empty, surprisingly. There had been a man there earlier but he had left not long after they arrived.

 

“I can’t,” Rin answered, voice high with stress. “How can you just sit there like that? Aren’t you worried!”

 

“I am, but you’re making it worse,” Sousuke bit, and Rin balked at his answer. Sousuke clicked his tongue at himself, how could he let his emotions get the better of him like that. Rin didn’t deserve that, they were all just nervous right now. Rin rubbed his arms for a second, glancing back at the double doors before sitting down next to Sousuke.

 

“It’ll be fine,” Rin whispered to himself, when he finished rubbing heat into his arms his hands went straight for his wedding ring. He spun it around so furiously Sousuke was sure that there would be a red burn there when he was done. He grabbed Rin’s hand, tired of seeing it abuse itself and interlaced their fingers. Rin took in a deep, stuttered breath.

 

“It’s been so long now,” he mumbled, wild fear in his eyes. “What if something went wrong.”

 

“Nothing went wrong,” Sousuke said, squeezing his hand. “We would have heard something by now if it had.”

 

“But you don’t know that,” Rin accused and Sousuke looked at him and he sealed his lips.

 

After all, that statement went both ways.

 

“I’m more worried about messing up how to hold them,” Sousuke admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “What if I drop them.”

 

“You aren’t going to,” Rin reassured. “Besides, you can sit in a chair when you hold the babies, and you won’t be holding them at the same time so it’ll be fine.”

 

“Did they ever decide on names?” Sousuke asked, looking down at the yellow floor tile. The waiting room was supposed to seem warm, but it was so bland it was driving him nuts.

 

“Mai and Mayumi I think,” Rin said, rubbing a whole into his neck.

 

“Why?” Sousuke asked, surprised. It was the first he was hearing of that. “Is he okay with that?”

 

“She came up with those names with Gou,” Rin said rubbing his neck. “I guess he agreed when she asked, especially since she ended up taking his name and everything. I don’t know.”

 

Sousuke turned his eyes back to the door. He wondered if it was alright then, if it was okay what they had done. In a way he was flattered that Hana had come to love their culture so much that she would use Japanese to name her children. However, at the same time it made him worry for their future. If they might not get bullied for it, after all, Hana didn’t sound so strictly Japanese when people said it.

 

But it was no longer in his hands, and his heart did flutters as he thought about how much thought she must have put into them. How are they written? For Mai he could only think of one way, but Mayumi? It could be written a few different ways, though he didn’t doubt its meaning must be truth and beauty.

 

“Rin! Sousuke!”

 

The two of them looked up to see their son-in-law bursting through the doors. There was a big smile on his face and they sprung up walking over to him. He was dressed normally again, not covered in the gowns and hats he had to wear for the birth. His cheeks were blotchy red and he wiped away some sweat.

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t come earlier, I should have said something, but you’re allowed to come see them now.”

 

Rin gripped Sousuke’s hand so tight it was bruising as they followed him out of the family waiting room and down the hall. Sousuke barely paid attention to where they were going as they went, focused on the sweaty palm of Rin’s hand in his. His own heart picked up another notch with each step they took.

 

When they finally stopped in front of the right room Rin dropped Sousuke’s hand and walked in with a great speed. Sousuke followed and when he saw her there, his heart stopped. She looked sickly in a way, but she was smiling bright. Her eyes showed how tired she was, leaning back against the bed. She was sitting up, and Sousuke turned to see two plastic bin-like things that held his grandchildren. One for each of them.

 

Rin was busy at the sink washing his hands before he walked over to them. The nurse in the corner of the room, who was looking at their charts had said it was okay to hold them now. He picked up one, so small it was in his arms. All Sousuke could do was just stare in awe. The baby was wrapped up tight in a blanket, a small hat on her head. She was so red looking, and her eyes and nose were all squished up.

 

“Hello,” Rin whispered, staring at the baby with a joy Sousuke had never seen in his life. “I’m your grandpa Rin, you know that?”

 

“Would you like to hold Mai?” the nurse asked suddenly and Sousuke looked at the other baby, fear in his heart.

 

“I don’t know how,” he admitted. The woman smiled at him and she gestured for him to sit in the seat next to Hana. He did and she scooped up the baby, walking her over to him and Hana mimicked how he should hold the baby. He moved his arms to cradle Mai as she was gently given to him. The nurse pushed up his right elbow to help support her head and Sousuke was breathless.

 

She was even smaller and lighter in his arms that he could have ever imagined. He had never once seen or held a new born baby before. They were so much smaller than the ones he saw sitting in strollers and being carried in backpack like contraptions by their parents out for walks. She felt like nothing in his arms.

 

“Mai likes to stretch,” the nurse said, “she hasn’t stopped since she came out.”

 

The nurse untucked the blanket a little more, and Mai’s hand popped out. It was curled in a tiny fist, flaky skin on her little red hand. Mai blinked open her eyes, just a bit, not enough to say she opened them. Her nose was small and round and when her mouth opened for a yawn Sousuke saw tiny gums and a little tongue inside.

 

Everything about her was so small.

 

“They’re beautiful,” Rin said, now standing next to Sousuke. His eyes went to Hana, a bright smile on his face. Sousuke was surprised that Rin, in this moment, was far from tears. Everything about him was just glowing, like this was the best moment of his life.

 

“Thanks,” Hana laughed. “You wouldn’t believe how hungry I am right now.”

 

“Is that normal?” Sousuke asked, looking up for only a brief second less he drop the baby on accident. He got no verbal response, but he could assume she had shrugged. Jayden had left them as quickly as he dropped them off, probably set on finding her what she sought.

 

“Here,” Hana said, and out of the corner of Sousuke’s eye he saw Rin give her Mayumi. Then Rin turned around and sunk to his knees in front of him, looking at Sousuke with a toothy grin. Sousuke could only glance at Rin before looking down at Mai again. Her eyes were a little wider this time, and he could see that they were blue.

 

“Do they both have blue eyes?” Sousuke asked, and Rin chuckled.

 

“For now they do, when they grow older they’ll change colors.”

 

“Why?” Sousuke asked, finally looking up at him. Rin’s eyes were focused on Mai’s, his fingers gently touching her cheek and nose.

 

“Because they don’t have blue eyes in the family. They’ll probably be hazel,” Rin said and he picked up the baby out of Sousuke’s hands. “Go wash your hands.”

 

Sousuke followed his instructions blindly. When he finished he came back to sit beside Rin who was already sitting in a chair that the nurse had brought over next to Sousuke’s. As soon as he sat back down Rin carefully took one hand off the baby and grabbed Sousuke’s, guiding his fingers to touch Mai’s hand. It was softer than he could even dream, and warm. It uncurled for a second before curling back up and Sousuke felt a smile growing on his face.

 

“Mai, this is your grandpa Sousuke. He’s a little awkward,” Rin joked quietly to her, as if she could understand, “but he’ll be spoiling you rotten for the rest of your life.”

 

“Dad, come take Mayumi,” Hana said and Sousuke’s heart jumped up into his throat. With a cautiousness he didn't know he was capable of he picked up Mayumi. He held her head and supported her body in his arms before cradling her close to his chest. Mayumi’s nose was just a little more upturned than her sister’s, and her ears were a little folded, but she had the same cute lips and puffy cheeks.

 

She didn’t open her eyes, she seemed to be fast asleep. Air came out of her mouth in gentle huffs and Sousuke felt like he was in an out of body experience. Everything about them was so strange, so new. They were ugly, little, red pudgy things, but they looked so beautiful. It was terrifying, they were terrifying.

 

Sousuke sat down carefully and once he was a bit more sure of himself, he picked up his one arm, balancing the baby in his other just above his lap. He brushed his fingers against Mayumi’s lips, and she opened her mouth wider. Her nose scrunched up and her lips flapped open and pursed together, sucking at the air. Rin was laughing beside him.

 

“We’re grandads,” Rin said beside him, laughing more to himself. Sousuke looked over to him, a grin on his face. He blinked in surprise when Rin leaned in to kiss him, somehow an expert in holding the baby in ways he wouldn’t hurt or disturb her.

 

Sousuke wondered, only for a second, if Rin had been made to have children and he had robbed him of that. But, he thought, even if that was so, Hana gave him that. This moment, it was thanks to her, and Rin would finally get to know this moment.

 

In fact, he’s sure, that if it wasn’t for Rin and Hana, he would have known this moment either.


	20. Grandchildren (Age 35)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well! That’s it! The second to last installment is all done! Next one is the last piece, I can’t wait to finish it and share it with everyone :) I hope everyone could find a little something they liked about this story, I certainly had a lot of fun writing it. Thank you everyone who gave me such support while I was tackling editing this monster <3 it was greatly appreciated!!! 
> 
> As a side note! The ages do reflect Hana’s age, and Rin and Sousuke are both technically about 23 years older than Hana, that would make them 58 in this last chapter! (now they really Are old people) I can’t wait to write about them being old in the last installment lol, it’ll definitely be interesting that’s for sure~

“Poppy!” Mai shouted, running away from her parents and jumping into Sousuke’s arms. Rin laughed as he saw the sight before opening his arms up for a hug himself. “Papa!”

 

“Mai, you shouldn’t run like that,” Hana said, walking up the pathway to the front door, Mayumi’s hand tight around her own. When she finally reached them she gave Rin a hug first. “I’m sorry I’m pushing this on you guys.”

 

“Pushing what? I always want to see my grandkids,” Rin snorted as he let go of her and dropped to his knees to see Mayumi. Mayumi let go of her mom’s hand and walked into Rin’s arms, allowing him to pick her up.

 

“We get to stay with Papa all week?” Mayumi said and Rin flashed her a grin.

 

“That’s right, you and Mai get to stay with me and your Poppy all week.”

 

Hana went back to the car and Mai and Sousuke followed her, all of them going to get their luggage. A folded blanket was also given to Sousuke to hold, for Mai who couldn’t sleep anywhere without it. Rin shifted Mayumi onto his hip, supporting her as he watched them carry their stuff. Mai was rolling a tiny little suit case that had a bunch of stars all over it.

 

“All set?” Rin asked, and Mai threw him a thumbs-up before opening the door and leaving them behind. “I guess so,” he laughed.

 

“I don’t even get a goodbye,” Hana grumbled, shaking her head. “I’ll be here Sunday night to pick them up. Thanks again for watching them.”

 

“Don’t worry about it, you go have fun with your husband on your amazing field trip,” Rin teased. The two had been picked as chaperones for an overseas fieldtrip. As soon as it was decided Hana had called them up to see if they could take care of the kids for the week.

 

“Be safe,” Sousuke said and Hana smiled at him, finally giving him a hug, though an awkward one. All of the stuff in his arms prevented him from hugging her back.

 

“I will Dad, don’t worry. Alright,” Hana sighed looking at Mayumi and holding out her arms. Mayumi reached out and hugged her, though she stayed in Rin’s arms. “Bye sweetheart.”

 

“Bye mommy,” Mayumi said.

 

“Take good care of your Poppy and your Papa for me, okay?”

 

“Okay,” she said with a shy grin, turning in Rin’s arms and wrapping her tiny arms around his neck.

 

“Goodbye!” Hana called through the door, a distant bye coming back to greet her. “That little brat.”

 

“It’s fine, she sees you all the time,” Rin teased. “Now it’s our turn.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure this one,” she said giving Sousuke a pointed look, “doesn’t spoil them too much. The last time they came over they wouldn’t leave.”

 

“You act like that isn’t the plan,” Sousuke laughed as he walked into the house, finally getting tired of holding on to all of their things. Hana chuckled before looking at Mayumi again and giving her a bright smile.

 

“Alright, well, I’m off,” Hana said and Rin and Mayumi stayed behind to wave as she left. Once that was over Rin turned into the house and shut the door behind them.

 

“What should we do first?” He mused and Mayumi pulled her thumb out of her mouth. She was already five, but it was a hard habit for her to break.

 

“Snacks,” she said and Rin carried her into the kitchen. Sure enough, Sousuke and Mai had beaten them to it, Mai sitting on the giant chair dumping a bag of chips into the bowl Sousuke had given her.

 

“Already opening up the good stuff huh,” Rin laughed and Sousuke shrugged, sitting down next to Mai and grabbing a chip from the bowl. Rin sat Mayumi down in the other high seat and went to pull out the juice boxes he had bought for them out of the fridge.

 

“We have to go swimming,” Mai said as she stuffed her cheeks full of chips. “And to the aquarium! And the park!”

 

“Oh yeah?” Sousuke hummed, a grin growing as he listened to her talk about her plans for the week.

 

“And stay up watching movies, and have the wedding!”

 

“The wedding!” Mayumi agreed.

 

Rin turned to Sousuke and saw that he was just as confused as he was. He plopped down two juice boxes in front of the girls after sticking the straws in for them and took a seat.

 

“What wedding?” he asked and Mayumi swirled in her chair to see him.

 

“Your second wedding,” she said. “We saw it on TV.”

 

“You have a second wedding to referm your vows,” Mai said after sucking out all of the juice from her juice box in one go. “Old people do it.”

 

“To reaffirm our vows?” Rin laughed, finally picking up what they were talking about. “How are we going to do that?”

 

“I can do it!” Mayumi said excitedly. “I know the words!”

 

“We’ll have the wedding here,” Mai said excitedly. Sousuke looked at the two of them, balancing his head in his hand. He looked at Rin and laughed.

 

“Well, I always did think that we were going to get married in a pool.”

 

“Let’s have it in the pool!” Mai screamed, jumping up to her knees in her chair, her hands on the table. “A water wedding!”

 

“Oh man,” Rin laughed under his breath, shaking his head. He should have known his second wedding would be in a pool.

 

“Can I be the ring bearer?” Mayumi asked and Mai scowled at her, her little brown curls bouncing against her head.

 

“No,” she booed “I am! You’re the person marrying them.”

 

“Oh,” Mayumi mumbled, a frown on her lips.

 

Rin smiled at the two of them. They were growing up so fast. He could remember Hana when she was only two years older than them, when they had first met her. It was amazing how he had never noticed how quick the youngest years passed. When he was young it all felt so slow, like he could never get older fast enough.

 

Sousuke started to plan their second wedding with the two of them and Rin was content to think about how amazing it was that he was there. That this was his life. How quick they’ll both grow up to realize the same, he thought. How quick childhood passes you by, but how it’s only worth anything if it’s fun. He hoped that the girls would love their childhood, would not have years of misery to drag through.

 

“You’re thinking too much,” Sousuke whispered and Rin looked up at him. Mayumi and Mai had already jumped down and went for their bathing suits. Rin tilted his head back for a kiss and Sousuke smiled against his lips, hand covering the one that was resting against the kitchen table.

 

“You always say that,” Rin said when Sousuke pulled away, blinking a second before flashing him a grin. Sousuke hummed at his side before pulling Rin out of his seat.

 

“That’s because you’re always thinking too much,” he chuckled. “Come on, we’re having a second wedding soon.”

 

“I hope all of my weddings are with you,” Rin teased as he followed him upstairs to their bedroom. They could hear the girls in the bathroom chatting away as they got dressed. They were already grown enough to feel like they didn’t need help anymore.

 

“They age so quick,” he remarked as they reached their bedroom. Sousuke looked at him with a smile before heading to their dresser to grab their swim trunks.

 

“We did too,” Sousuke said with a chuckle, a faraway look in his eyes. Rin frowned, knowing that there was more to that statement than he wished there was. Sousuke especially grew up too fast.

 

“We all do,” Rin said and he wrapped his arms around Sousuke, kissing his shoulder. “Whether we like it or not. But for now, wedding right?”

 

Sousuke stared at the dresser a second longer before turning to him, a genuine smile on his face.

 

“Time to repeat one of the best days of my life,” he said. “This time we should definitely have a race up the aisle.”

 

Rin was laughing too hard to kiss him properly after that.


End file.
